Jonathan Del Arco

Jonathan Del Arco is an Uruguayan American actor, born on March 7, 1966, in Uruguay. He is also a gay rights, environmental, and political activist. His family emigrated to the United States when he was ten years old, settling in a two-bedroom apartment in Port Chester, New York. As a teenager, Del Arco developed an interest in theater, regularly taking commuter trains from Port Chester into Manhattan to attend plays and eventually enrolling in acting classes there. After finishing high school, he relocated to New York City permanently.

Del Arco's early stage work included a role in the touring company of Torch Song Trilogy, and his New York theater debut came in 1987 with Milcha Sanchez-Scott's Roosters at the INTAR Theatre, where theater critic Mel Gussow described his performance as "most sensitive" and called the debut "auspicious." His Broadway debut followed in 1988, when he understudied and subsequently played Martin in Michael Weller's Spoils of War at the Music Box Theatre, replacing Christopher Collet in the role. In 1990, he took on an off-Broadway role in John Jesurun's Everything That Rises Must Converge at the Kitchen Theatre Company. His additional stage credits include Amulets Against the Dragon Forces by Paul Zindel, House Arrest by Anna Deavere Smith, The Virgin Molly by Quincy Long, Common Infractions / Gross Injustices produced by the American Repertory Theater, and Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca. Beginning in 1996, Del Arco joined the Hispanic Playwrights Project at the South Coast Repertory, where he spent six seasons. He also participated in the summers of 1998 and 1999 at the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard University under Anna Deavere Smith.

Del Arco's television career began to take shape around 1990, when he appeared on Miami Vice and in the independent film Lost Angeles before relocating to Los Angeles. Guest roles on True Colors, Sisters, The Wonder Years, and Blossom followed, along with a small part in The Mambo Kings. His most prominent role from this period was the Borg drone Hugh on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1992, a character he reprised in 1993. Del Arco has spoken about drawing on personal grief when developing Hugh, as he had lost his first partner, Eddie, to AIDS approximately a year before filming. He later reprised the role in Star Trek: Picard in 2020, a direct sequel to The Next Generation. One of his close friends, Jeri Ryan, also played a Borg character in the franchise, and Del Arco rehearsed with her to help her prepare when she returned to her role in 2020.

In 2003, Del Arco landed a recurring guest role on FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a transgender woman named Sofia Lopez. Roles on 24, The Sopranos, and Dollhouse followed. From 2007 onward, he held a recurring role as the openly gay medical examiner Dr. Morales on TNT's The Closer, a role he continued as a series regular in the spin-off Major Crimes. In 2014, he appeared in the episode "Love Sucks" of The Crazy Ones, portraying the previously unseen husband of Brad Garrett's character.

Beyond acting, Del Arco has been active in political and advocacy work. In 1995 he began working on an environmental campaign led by actor and director Rob Reiner, which led to involvement in numerous political campaigns. He volunteered for Barack Obama, served as a celebrity surrogate for Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, and participated in the Biden/Harris campaign in 2020. He also volunteered as a surrogate for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock during the 2020 Georgia Senate runoff elections. Del Arco raises awareness for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and works with the Human Rights Campaign, which awarded him its Visibility Award in 2013. He is a member of Actors' Equity Association. After moving to Hollywood, Del Arco met talent manager Kyle Fritz, and the two later married.