George Lopez is a Latino American
comedian, actor and entertainer and star of a self-titled,
ABC sitcom, The George Lopez Show.
Lopez grew up in the San Fernando Valley near Los
Angeles, California. He became a popular stand-up comedian,
especially among the Latino community for his satirizing
of Latin-American life and culture in the United States.
Much of his humor was drawn from the financial poverty
of his upbringing and of the Latino community in general.
In 2000, after several years of performing stand-up
comedy, Lopez was approached by actress Sandra Bullock
for Lopez to produce and star in a comedy. Bullock
was concerned about the lack of Latino-oriented sitcoms
on American television and pushed to get a sitcom on
television that starred Latinos but wasn't exclusively
about the Hispanic American community. ABC, who had
been criticized by Latin-American groups for lack of
Latinos on their television shows quickly picked up
the television series, which began airing in 2002,
aired in ABC's TGIF lineup in 2003-2004, and is now
shown on ABC at 8:30 on Tuesday nights.
In addition, Lopez performed in Real Women Have Curves,
which was featured in the 2002 Sundance Film Festival
(and later aired to much acclaim on HBO), and The Adventures
of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D in 2005.
Lopez suffers from a genetic defect which causes
his kidneys to malfunction. In April of 2005, he received
a transplanted kidney from his wife, Ann. |
