Ryan Guzman

Ryan Guzman (born September 21, 1987) is an American actor and former model, known for his lead roles as Sean Asa in Step Up Revolution and Step Up: All In, part of the Step Up film series, as Noah Sandborn in the erotic psychological thriller The Boy Next Door and as Edmundo "Eddie" Diaz in the Fox procedural drama 9-1-1. Guzman was born in Abilene, Texas to Ramón Guzmán Jr., an immigrant from Mexico and Lisa Anne (née Hudson), a Californian with English, German, French, Dutch and Swedish ancestry,[citation needed] and has a younger brother, Steven. His family later moved to his mother's hometown of Sacramento, California, where he graduated from West Campus High School in 2005 and attended Sierra College. Guzman started Taekwondo at the age of seven and continued on to earn his Black Belt at the age of ten. He also played baseball in high school and college but was forced to give it up due to a shoulder injury and an unsuccessful surgery. Before going into acting, Guzman was a mixed martial arts fighter, until his fighting license expired in 2010, plus a print and commercial model with Wilhelmina Models and Look Model Agency from the age of 18, when he moved to San Francisco. He modelled for Abercrombie & Fitch and Reebok, as well as starred in television commercials for Old Navy, Gillette, among others. Guzman began auditioning for acting roles and landed the lead role as Sean Asa in the fourth movie in the Step Up film series, Step Up Revolution in 2012, despite having no formal training in dancing, "my first dance lesson was ‘Step Up Revolution’." He added, it was "by luck. I think everybody was drunk when they saw me audition. No, it was a long process: four acting and six dancing auditions. The director, Scott Speer, said there was some kind of magic between me and Kathryn (McCormick) he wanted to have in the movie." He reprised the lead role as Sean Asa in 2014, in the sequel, the fifth and final instalment of the film series, Step Up: All In. Coming back into the high-energy franchise, Guzman said, "The hardest thing is matching my skill level to the professional dancers who’ve been dancing for 25 years,” adding that, “acting like I can dance is one thing, but making it believable to the audience is another. I’m training nonstop with these dancers, learning the ins and outs and everything I can to make it look like I’m as good as they are.” He also credited his mixed martial arts training, "the discipline and determination I had to have for martial arts, I carry on as an actor.”