Meet rising star Josh Andrés Rivera, an American actor of Puerto Rican descent, who is currently making his rounds in Hollywood.
The 29-year-old actor’s filmography has been pretty short, but it has been jam-packed with pretty awesome films. He first came into the spotlight in 2021 when he landed a role on Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story as Chino.
@d3adlotus i need more ppl to make edits of him pls #joshandresrivera #joshandresriveraedit #sejanusplinth #sejanusplinthedit #tbosas #theballadofsongbirdsandsnakes #tbosasedit #westsidestory #westsidestoryedit #chino #americansportsstory
The talented actor has also spent time on Broadway as an understudy and a standby on Hamilton.
He landed another role in a big franchise in 2023 when he was cast as Sejanus Plinth in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
His previous film roles have been quite significant, but in Ryan Murphy’s American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, Rivera is finally taking center stage. This role presents a challenge, as it’s a stark contrast to the characters he’s portrayed in the past. In an interview with Men’s Health, he discussed how he prepared to play footballer and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez, detailing both his physical transformation and the mental preparation required for such a complex character:
“Before we started, I was about 185 pounds… Now, I’m about 215. And that’s after I’ve been trying to lose weight since we finished shooting. The show hooked me up with a trainer—I still work with him. And I just had to eat a lot.” He added, “I just worked out every day and ate a metric ton.”
Discussing how he translated his research on Hernandez to the screen, Rivera shared:
“I paid a lot of attention to the research we had at our disposal… I tried to avoid direct imitation.” He further added, “I wanted to understand his disposition without spending too much time thinking about how to copy it.”
Related: Aaron Hernandez to be Portrayed by Josh Andrés Rivera in New Series
Interestingly, Rivera was also a football player—specifically a guard and linebacker—before fate led him to quit football and participate in his school’s production of Les Misérables.
Image via X (@FilmUpdates)
If you’re curious about his relationship status… bad news—he’s not single. The actor met his girlfriend, Rachel Zegler, who will star in the live-action adaptation of Disney’s Snow White, on the set of West Side Story. If fate had anything to do with it, the two worked together again on the set of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
Catch Rivera’s biggest role to date in American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez on September 17 on FX and will be available to stream on Hulu.
In the meantime, let’s check out more of his transformation for the role, shall we?
Sources: IMDB, IBDB, Men’s Health