Have You Met...? Monday (#6) - Alexis Cruz
I almost feel a bit guilty posting this one - - everyone else I've been talking about, I was pretty sure you didn't know them YET but that you needed to. This next chap...well, chances are you know him, but maybe you didn't KNOW you knew him. Either way, you should know him. He's my thespian hermano, the one and only Alexis Cruz. Geez, now I feel like I'm name dropping. Well, thing is, you may NOT have heard of him, but let's change that now. Smart, clever, funny and deeply spiritual, Alexis is definitely one of those people who has all those great personal facets that make them worth knowing. But even just looking at his professional background - - his IMDB page is pretty astonishing, too - - he's a machine, this guy.
In my life, I've kind of danced around the fringes of that popular crowd, and Alexis and I met through a completely non-Hollywood scenario, which let me not feel like a suck up. More importantly, I got to be his friend outside of all the crazy of the movie industry. There's really just something to be said about getting to know someone away from work - it's where the real person shows up and... well, come on, that's the best way to know someone, right?
At one point, I was working on a book and played with the idea of slipping in a reference for him, but was disappointed when it occurred to me that the anglicized variant of his name would be Alex Cross. So much for that character. Well, I put him in my newest book, a sword-master named Tarik. So, there. Problem solved.
He's come a long way since Sesame Street and Stargate - and, not one to sit back on his past accolades, he's branched out into graphic novels and production, and he shows no sign of slowing down.
Oh, and if you happen to be attending DragonCon this year, they're doing a big Stargate reunion - - - go check it out! Swing by his table, shake his hand, tell him he's awesome.