Lucio Fernandez

Lucio P. Fernandez is a Cuban-American entertainer, politician, author, playwright, screenwriter, producer, and film director who has worked across theater, film, television, and music. He also serves as Commissioner of Public Affairs in Union City, New Jersey, under Mayor Brian P. Stack.

Fernandez was born in Havana, Cuba, to Lucio Pablo Gallardo and Herminia Fernandez, a seamstress. His father was a political prisoner who endured severe mistreatment during his imprisonment. Fernandez has a brother, Frank, and two sisters, Anna and Pabla. After Herminia was compelled to leave Cuba for political reasons, the family spent a year in Spain before emigrating to the United States in the 1970s. They settled first in North Bergen, New Jersey, and later in Union City, New Jersey, where Fernandez grew up. He attended Union Hill High School and subsequently enrolled at Rutgers University's Newark Campus, initially pursuing a double major in engineering and business. An encounter with the university's Theater Department prompted him to change course, and he ultimately earned a bachelor's degree in Theater Arts. He later completed training at the Bobby Lewis Theatre Workshop in Manhattan.

Following his graduation, Fernandez pursued performance work aggressively, sending out hundreds of photographs and résumés weekly while continuing to study singing, acting, and dancing. He joined the Screen Actors Guild, Actors' Equity Association, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, through which he took on television commercials, radio work, and small roles in films and soap operas. Between 1985 and 1997, he toured nationally and internationally in productions including West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, A Chorus Line, and Guys and Dolls, performing alongside Marc Anthony, Shirley MacLaine, and Gene Kelly, and working under directors and choreographers including Jerome Robbins, Jerry Zaks, and Michael Peters. His touring engagements took him as far as Ecuador and Mexico City. His Broadway appearances occurred between 1992 and 1995, with credits in West Side Story and Guys and Dolls.

In September 2000, Fernandez and his wife Megan founded the nonprofit Grace Theatre Workshop, which offers free arts instruction to children and began with seven students at Union City's Grace Episcopal Church before growing to serve approximately 120 children at Jose Marti Freshman Academy. In 2001 he began hosting Ensalada, a bilingual local access program in which he poses social questions to Union City residents on the street. In 2004, he and Megan founded MeLu Films, a film production company.

Fernandez leads a Latin jazz band called CuJazz, which he has described as a vehicle for setting his free-form poetry to music. In 2003, CuJazz released the independent album Volver A Ti, an eight-track collection of covers and originals including "Besame Mucho" and "Nuestro Olvido." In 2008, he produced an autobiographical stand-up comedy concert titled The Cuban Kid, written with Union City Historian Gerard Karabin, directed by Megan Fernandez, and featuring musical arrangements by Mark Goodman. The show earned Fernandez a nomination for a 2008 MAC Award and the 2009 ITRA Award for Best Performance Theatrical, Male.

In 2009, MeLu Films began production on Vampire in Union City, a 48-minute surrealist independent film written by Karabin and produced, directed by, and starring Fernandez. The film, which follows a man obsessed with death as he roams Union City, was shot almost entirely within the city, using locations such as St. John's Episcopal Church and Hackensack Reservoir No. 2. Its world premiere took place on September 3, 2010, at the Summit Quadplex on Summit Avenue, marking the first world premiere of a film in Union City. The film was subsequently screened at Mexico's Alberto Andrade Gallery Expo and Sweden's Hellsen Gallery, and aired on Cablevision in September 2010.

In October 2011, Fernandez premiered Lucio ... Less Cuban Than Ever at the Laurie Beechman Theater in Manhattan. Co-written with Karabin and directed by cabaret director Lenny Watts, the show combined comedy, audience interaction, and show tunes performed with an eight-piece band of Broadway veterans led by Mark Goodman, whom Fernandez had met during their shared run in West Side Story in 1996. The production sold out its initial four engagements and added a fifth performance. In 2013, Fernandez starred in Till Death, a dark comedy he had begun writing in 1985 as a Rutgers student, with its world premiere held at The Producers' Club Theatre in Manhattan on November 20, 2013.

Fernandez also produces Live on Stage, a television program on Cablevision and Comcast that highlights local artists in the North Hudson County area, and publishes an entertainment newspaper called Sunlight News. In 2016, MeLu Films produced the music video for "Que Viva USA," a single by Ray Machado's band Máxima Alerta, on which Fernandez served as a vocalist and manager, with the video directed by Brandon Medina.