Actor Esai Morales was born on October 1, 1962 in Brooklyn, New York to parents born in Puerto Rico. He graduated from New York’s High School of Performing Arts, deciding early on to pursue a career in acting. He began working on stage, appearing in El Hermano at the Ensemble Theatre Studio and at New York's Shakespeare Festival In The Park in The Tempest. It was in 1983 that he got his film breakthrough, when he was cast in Bad Boys. He later gained fame playing Lt. Tony Rodriguez on the television police drama NYPD Blue. Aside from this, he also worked on shows like Resurrection Boulevard and American Family. He also landed projects on the silver screen like La Bamba and Dogwatch to name a few. In addition to that, he has been credited for his voice work in animated videos like The Adventures of Tom Thumb & Thumbelina in 2002 and Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman in 2000.
Appearing on the small screen, Esai Morales has been cast in series like The Outer Limits, Family Law, The Twilight Zone and Fame. He has also been on Tales from the Crypt and Miami Vice. In 2008, he was chosen for a role in the CBS drama Jericho as the character Edward Beck. Later that year, it was announced that he would be playing the lead role of Joseph Adama in the Battlestar Galactica spin-off, Caprica.
Apart from acting, he was one of the founders of the Hispanic Foundation for the Arts. Morales is a self-proclaimed activist who has volunteered his time for a number of charitable organizations and environmental causes. He was a founding board member of E.C.O. (Earth Communications Office), is a clearing house for environmental information. In addition, he has worked closely with the Wildlife Preservation Fund in Costa Rica and Health Education Aids Liaison (H.E.A.L.).