Born in Brooklyn, New York, son of Peruvian film and stage actress Teresa Yenque, José Yenque has over a decade of experience as a professional actor and devoted humanitarian, which earned him an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from California State University, San Marcos. Yenque stars in Blake Freeman's new feature comedy All About The Money opposite Eddie Griffith and Danny Trejo on Netflix. Other upcoming projects include Welcome Back by Matias Nilsen, opposite Natalia Cordova- Buckley and Yareli Arizmendi, and In a Parallel World, which Yenque produced.
Yenque's performance as DEA agent Enrique "Kike" Camarena in 20th Century Fox's international release Miss Bala, earned him an Imagen award nomination in 2013. Gael García Bernal, Pablo Cruz, and Diego Luna, of Canana Films, produced the film. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as Mexico's official selection for the 2012 Oscar competition for best foreign film.
His past film credits include: Steven Soderbergh's Oscar- winning movie Traffic, opposite Benicio Del Toro; Mike Mills' Beginners, opposite Christopher Plummer; HBO's The Blue Diner, with Teresa Yenque; and the Academy Award-winning short film Wednesday Afternoon. His television credits include: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia; Law & Order SVU; Heroes and Lost. He also starred in Mexico's number one science fiction web series El Porvenir, by Vigilante Films.
Yenque's work has been recognized by numerous organizations within the entertainment industry, including Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) (Alma Award). In 2007, he earned the Imagen Award for his standout performance in Lifetime Network's thriller Between, opposite Poppy Montgomery, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
At the age of 14, Yenque's life was turned around by the transformative power of art, when his mother, New York veteran actress Teresa Yenque (30 Rock, Law & Order), enrolled him in a drama workshop. This helped him go from a shy, 230-pound young man who stuttered, to a confident and gifted actor, at home on the stage and comfortable with himself. As a result of this life-changing experience, Yenque has a passion for helping teens make it through those sometimes-difficult years, using art as a vehicle for development of life skills and self-confidence.
His more than 13 years of humanitarian efforts and educational outreach include substantive and ongoing service to the youth of the Casa Hogar orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, motivational talks at orphanages and youth development centers throughout Latin America, and lectures/workshops on high school/college campuses from coast to coast.
In 2012, Yenque founded Arts for a Better Tomorrow (ABT), a 501(c)3 nonprofit international arts organization. It harnesses the transformational and healing powers of theater and media arts to effect real change and offer positive paths to the future for at-risk youth on both sides of the border. The program does more than just work with teens in Tijuana orphanages and U.S. inner city public schools. The program uses the ABT network to connect these students through video messaging, teaching them empathy while creating an international camaraderie.
