Jose Yenque Receives 2012 Imagen Award Nomination

08/08/2012 (press release: closeupnow) // Hollywood, CA, USA // Addison Witt

The action thriller Miss Bala premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim and was nominated for an Un Certain Regard Award. The only U.S. Latin actor cast in the Mexican film, Yenque is nominated for his role as the valiant undercover DEA Agent Enrique “Kike” Camara”. Miss Bala tells the story of a young girl in Baja California, Mexico who wants to be a beauty queen and finds herself caught up in the Mexican-American drug wars. Executive produced by Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna and directed by Gerardo Naranjo, Miss Bala was Mexico’s official submission for the 2012 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Miss Bala won the Horizons Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and was nominated for awards at the Chicago International Film Festival, the Satellite Awards, and the Goya Awards.

The Imagen Awards are given annually by the Imagen Foundation to recognize and reward the positive portrayal of Latinos in all media, as well as to honor the achievements of Latinos in the entertainment and communications industries. The 27th Imagen Awards ceremony will take place on Friday, August 10, 2012 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and will air as a one-hour special on PBS SoCal.

This is the second time Jose Yenque is honored with a nomination for an Imagen Award. In 2007 he won the Imagen Award for Best Supporting Actor in Television for his role as Detective Gustavo Campos in the film Between. Premiering at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Between was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and aired on Lifetime TV in 2007. Along with Jose Yenque, the film starred Poppy Montgomery, Patricia Reyes Spíndola and Danny Pino.

On being recognized for the Imagen Award for the second time, Yenque says, “This nomination is a true honor, especially for playing such a noble character as “Kike”, who is to this day a great role model to me. When I won this award in 2007, I saw the opportunity to invest even more of myself to help our at-risk youth here and in Tijuana, Mexico. From this “positive portrayal” award came a “positive example” to our youth, and it remains this way: a win/win for all.”

On television Yenque has appeared in primetime shows It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Nip/Tuck, Law & Order–SVU, Heroes, and Lost, amongst others, and will be seen this fall in the pilot episode of the new NBC comedy 1600 Penn, playing the President of Columbia.

His film credits include Steven Soderbergh’s Academy Award winning Traffic, HBO’s The Blue Diner (w/ his mother/actor Teresa Yenque), and the Academy Award winning short film (student category) Wednesday Afternoon. He was recently seen in the film The Beginners, opposite Christopher Plummer, who won the Oscar for Best Actor. He is the Executive Producer of the short film Botes al Amanecer, which will have its premiere on Friday, August 17 at the 2012 HBO New York International Latino Film Festival. Yenque is currently filming a feature comedy Mucho Dinero by director Blake Freeman, starring with Eddie Griffin and Danny Trejo.

Jose Yenque gives back with as much passion as he gives to his acting. His numerous humanitarian efforts in the arts and education have earned him well-deserved honors. In 2011 Yenque received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from California State University San Marcos and a grant from the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust to launch “Arts for a Better Tomorrow,” a program that uses the arts to bring about positive self-expression, healing and change to underprivileged youth in Mexican orphanages and U.S. inner cities. In 2010, Yenque was the recipient of the Ilka Award, given by the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors’ (HOLA) in recognition of his significant humanitarian work.

Jose Yenque is repped by The WEM Group.

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