Background and career
George Edward Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American stand-up comedian and actor most known for starring in his eponymous ABC sitcom George Lopez from 2002 to 2007. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican-American culture. Lopez has received several honors for his work and contributions to the Latino community, including the 2003 Imagen Vision Award, the 2003 Latino Spirit Award for Excellence in Television and the National Hispanic Media Coalition Impact Award. He was also named one of the "25 Most Influential Hispanics in America" by Time magazine in 2005.
Lopez was born on April 23, 1961 in Los Angeles, to Frieda and Anatasio Lopez, a Mexican migrant worker. He grew up in an impoverished, unstable, Catholic household. He was abandoned by his father when he was two months old and by his mother when he was 10 years old. His mother was a deeply troubled woman who attempted suicide and was sent to a psychiatric hospital when Lopez was a child. She was illiterate, unable to write her own name, and suffered from epilepsy since her childhood. Lopez described her as "a scammer" and "a party girl [with] no parental instincts." He has two half-sisters from his mother's relationship with a man 40 years her senior. Lopez was raised by his maternal grandmother, Benita Gutierrez, a factory worker who was herself abandoned by her mother, and his step-grandfather, Refugio Gutierrez, a day laborer and alcoholic who physically abused Lopez and his grandmother. His grandmother was cold, cruel, and unsympathetic towards Lopez. Lopez attended San Fernando High School, graduating in 1979.
In 2000, after several years of performing stand-up comedy, Lopez was approached by actress Sandra Bullock, who wanted to produce a comedic television show for Lopez. Bullock was concerned about the lack of Hispanic-oriented sitcoms on American television, and pushed to get a sitcom on network television that starred Hispanics without being exclusively about the Hispanic American community. Long criticized by Hispanic American groups for lack of Latinos on their television programs, ABC quickly picked up the television series. In 2002, Lopez became one of the few Latinos to star in a television series, following in the footsteps of Desi Arnaz, Freddie Prinze, and John Leguizamo. On March 8, 2007, it was announced that George Lopez would join the Nick at Nite lineup. It first aired on Nick at Nite on September 10, 2007. On May 15, 2007, ABC announced that the series would be canceled after its sixth season. The show last aired on ABC September 7, 2007. The show also entered syndication in the fall of 2007. Never a big Nielsen hit in prime-time, the show became a surprise success in syndication. After receiving the news that his show was canceled in 2007, Lopez criticized the president of ABC Entertainment, Steve McPherson, for using racially motivated reasons for his decision. He told the Los Angeles Times that "TV just became really, really white again", and lashed out against ABC by saying, "So a chicano can't be on TV, but a caveman can?" in reference to the short-lived sitcom Cavemen, which replaced George Lopez on the schedule; he further blamed the network for causing over one hundred members of his show's staff to become jobless.Cavemen garnered a sharply negative reception from critics and viewers, and was canceled after 13 episodes. Lopez was a cast member and commentator for HBO's hit sports show Inside the NFL for the 2003–04 football season. Lopez guest-starred as the mayor of Reno, Nevada, in season five of Reno 911! in 2008. On March 28, 2009, it was announced that Lopez would be hosting his own late-night talk show on TBS entitled Lopez Tonight, Monday through Thursday at midnight Eastern Time. The show debuted in November 2009. In November 2010, the show moved back to midnight ET to accommodate a new show with former Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien. Although O'Brien had reservations about the move and initially refused TBS's offer, Lopez supported and even advocated for it, making it different from the 2010 Tonight Show conflict that saw O'Brien depart NBC after a proposal to push Tonight back 30 minutes for Jay Leno to return to the 11:35 p.m. slot. On August 10, 2011, Lopez received a cancellation notice from TBS. The network decided not to renew Lopez Tonight for a third season. On April 18, 2013, it was announced that Lopez would be starring in his own sitcom on FX called Saint George, which premiered on March 6, 2014. Saint George was produced under Debmar-Mercury and Lionsgate Television's syndication model, which states that if a show hits certain ratings thresholds in its first 10-episode run, it triggers an additional 90-episode order. Failing to do so, Saint George was canceled on June 25, 2014, after one season.
In August 2015, TV Land announced a straight-to-series order for Lopez, a semi-autobiographical single-camera sitcom, which debuted on March 30, 2016. Lopez was invited to be a guest judge on America's Got Talent in 2016. He was allowed to use his golden buzzer once, which made an act go straight to the live shows. He used his on the dance group Malevo. In May 2022, NBC picked up Lopez's new series, Lopez vs Lopez, where he co-stars opposite his daughter, Mayan. The series was canceled in May 2025, after three seasons.
Lopez's HBO Films drama Real Women Have Curves premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received the 2002 Audience Award. Previously, Lopez was featured in the 2000 drama Bread and Roses. He starred in the ABC Wonderful World of Disney Christmas film Naughty or Nice, and he appeared in the Robert Rodriguez-directed film The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (2005). Brown Is the New Green: George Lopez and the American Dream is a 2007 documentary directed and produced by Phillip Rodriguez. In 2008, Lopez voiced Papi Cortez (a Chihuahua) in Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua. In 2010, Lopez appeared in The Spy Next Door with Jackie Chan, starring as a villain named Glaze. The following year Lopez reprised his role as Papi for Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, and was the voice of a toco toucan, Rafael, in the animated box-office hit Rio, alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, will.i.am, and Jamie Foxx. In 2019, he played the role of Captain Gomez in the independent film El Chicano. In 2023, Lopez starred as Rudy Reyes, uncle of Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle, in the DC Extended Universe superhero film Blue Beetle. He will next star in The Underdoggs, scheduled for release in 2024.
Lopez's autobiography Why You Crying was published by the Touchstone/Fireside division of Simon & Schuster, and placed in The New York Times bestsellers top twenty. The book is co-written by Armen Keteyian.
