Rising Stars: Meet Felix Pire

Today we’d like to introduce you to Felix Pire.

Hi Felix, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born, reluctantly, in Tampa, Florida — our family moved from there to Miami when I was two. For some enchanted reason, I knew that I would be an actor ever since I was in junior high. I grew up in Miami where I went to the New World School of the Arts high school for theatre. I performed in a professional plays and a PBS TV show for teens, called “Teen Scene”. I was the second graduating class of that high school in 1989. My prom date Katie Finneran is in fact a two-time Tony Award winner, and is currently on the HBO show, “The Gilded Age”. I’m proud of her… After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in acting and directing, with an emphasis in film from Southern Methodist University in Dallas Texas, I moved out to Los Angeles.

Almost immediately, I got hired to work as an actor for a Latinx touring company called the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts. Its literary manager wrote a one-man show that would eventually get produced with myself is the solo performer. “Men on the Verge of a Hispanic Breakdown” by Guillermo Reyes was the first smashing success in my acting career.

Lucky for me, my name “Felix” means lucky in Latin. I went on to perform the solo show, Off-Broadway, where I won the New York Outer Critics Circle award for Outstanding Solo Performance. This, later on, when I would turn towards teaching at the university level at UCLA – would become my “Masters Degree”.

Produced by the Celebration Theater, the LGBTQ+ in Los Angeles, reviews came in touting my solo performance from the L.A. Times to The New York Times, who wrote me a love letter. Soon thereafter, a professor of mine from college — a wonderful television producer of the 1970s named Bob Banner, contacted some friends at one of the most powerful agencies in Hollywood, ICM, and one of the agents there Jon Sepler put me in his “hip pocket”, as they say in The Business. This means that he would send me out for auditions but wouldn’t sign me all together.

Immediately, I began to book big acting gigs, playing roles on TV as a series regular on a show starring Montel Williams as the principal of a high school on CBS, called “Matt Waters”, to movies such as “12 Monkeys”, opposite Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis… Sadly, Jon passed away only two years into representing me and getting my face on screen. That’s the first act break in my E! True Hollywood Story. It was a sad turn of events.

After this, I worked many creative jobs. For a long time, I was a production coordinator at Universal Studios Creative Department, which deals with creating the Universal theme parks. I was there though the creation of their park in Osaka, Japan… I also turned to teaching. For many years I taught solo performance, acting, and improvisation at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and ultimately still presently teach the same subjects for UCLA and UCLA extension.

Intermittently, I played guest stars on TV shows such as “NYPD Blue” and “Prison Break”. But as soon as YouTube came out, I decided I wanted to produce a show online where I could demonstrate my talents in a way where you wouldn’t necessarily see me.
So I turned towards something I love very much parallel to acting: puppetry. I put together a bilingual Latinx puppet comedy series for adults, called “LosTiteresTV” (*ThePuppetsTV in Spanish) — with a talking, mustachioed parrot as host, a Punch & Judy-like telenovela couple as regular characters, and a talking marijuana plant, which I hope would eventually bring in cannabis investment to actually produce a full-on TV show. I figured the character, “Mary Juana” would be an excellent pitch person for products. I’m retitling it for television, calling the series: “The Señor Loco Show”.

The puppet webisodes I created online got noticed by the Jim Henson Company who trained me up as the first Latino member of their improv puppet show for adults: “PUPPET UP! UnCensored”… Since then, puppetry has been another career for me, working with puppet production companies, for example, like Swazzle.com… It’s a small community, the puppeteers, many of the TV/film ones, of course, based in Los Angeles. This triad of careers: acting, puppetry and teaching performance in universities, has encompassed much of my life.
I am currently returning to television as an actor in the show “BELAIR”, the reboot of “The Fresh Prince of Belair”, which premiered on the NBC/Peacock App. I play the mansion’s chef for a moment in the pilot. I hope to be recurring.
Also, I’ve created several pitches for LATINX and LGBTQ+ television shows and films, which now that a tide seems to have turned in the industry, I feel is the right time to produce.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The death of my agent when I was just getting started in my career was very difficult. I then pivoted to teaching, which I wasn’t really thinking about front of mind, but opportunities came up and it ended up being extremely rewarding. I have students now that are lawyers and doctors and performers in Hollywood.
The most difficult part of it is getting so close but not getting it. For example when I first got to Hollywood, I auditioned for the television sketch show, “In Living Color” and I got cast! That’s the year it was canceled. I never stepped on the soundstage.
Later on, I was up for SNL the year they were looking to cast a Latino. At the time, I had a hit show Off-Broadway where I was playing multiple characters, and I had managers at 3ARTS, who represented SNL cast members like Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, and my magnificent first agent. If I was gonna get it, I would have. But that year they gave the Latino spot on SNL to Horatio Sanz… Those are the breaks, kid.

Recently I had the opportunity to audition for “Sesame Street” as a Latino puppet father to their Rosita character. They flew me out to New York and I even found out how to Get To Sesame Street!… But I did not get the part. That’s a time, though, where I counted the audition and the free flight to New York as a win! Not the least of which was because on the day of my audition, I got standing room tickets to “Book of Mormon”, and that same evening, took myself out to see it as a treat to myself. I’m glad I did. The audience was raucous, and joyous, and so glad to be back at the theatre after the pandemic that stopped most shows cold.
It’s that SISYPHUS feeling of hauling that rock up the hill perpetually that can be a challenge, but as you get older, as an actor, you realize it’s always going to be that way, and you get used to it.

I’ve gotten so CLOSE so many times… Whatever I don’t get, though, I don’t mourn too much — because I realize it wasn’t meant for me. I’m Cuban-American, and there’s a Spanish expression: “Lo que esta para ti, nadie te lo quita.”… Translation: “What’s meant for you, no one can take away.”

So you get Zen about it as you age… And ART is a FICKLE Mistress because once you learn to ignore her and just Do You — she shows up with opportunities and possibly fame.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I specialize in character acting, particularly accents and quirky characters. I think one of my proudest moments is still acting in Terry Gilliam’s science fiction classic, 12 MONKEYS. I feel like my work opposite Brad Pitt in particular is some of the most honest acting I’ve ever done on film.

Being an openly LGBTQ+ and Latino performer in The Business since the mid-1990’s, what sets me apart from many others is that in spite of the tremendous difficulty of being cast in any role on television or film who is anything like myself — I’ve created characters and performances that have gotten me hired, playing people completely unlike myself. At 50 years old, as the Sondheim song says, “I’m still here”. I’m in Los Angeles, and living the dream of being an actor and filmmaker.

In terms of teaching, I’m proud to have so many “children in art”; that I’ve influenced them and passed along the art of acting to them. After a certain point of mastery in any art, the artist, if they have the slightest interest in it, should teach others. To pass the knowledge of art along is sacred.

What makes you happy?
As an actor, director, producer, writer — I’m happy when I’m in perfect synch with creative people working on a goal involving storytelling. Film and television cameras in production make me happy. Broadway and live theatre is my safe space: Art is my religion.
Also: Puppy love, Disney Theme Parks, and Cuban food!

Contact Info:

• Email: fpire@yahoo.com
• Website: felixpire.com
• Instagram: @felixpire
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hollywoodcharacteractor
• Twitter: @felixpire
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb6eT3Go55aNkjllxBoA9nw
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/c/LosTiteresTV

Image Credits
Hollywood lettering image and image in the theatre by: David Guillen • https://www.instagram.com/davidguillen1/ All other images are taken by me, and I give you the rights. Thanks, Felix Pire