We can see how heading up the dramatic Suarez household on Ugly Betty is enough to make any father flip his lid. Luckily Tony Plana has the acting chops to pull off the role with flying colors!

 

Plana was educated at Loyola-Marymount University, where he earned a bachelor's degree through the Honors Program in Literature and Theatre Arts, graduating magna cum laude. He received professional training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. As Ignacio Suarez, the widowed father to America Ferrera in Ugly Betty, he received the 2006 Golden Satellite Award from the International Press Academy and an ALMA Award nomination for best supporting actor in a television comedy. Plana also starred as Roberto Santiago in Showtime's groundbreaking series, Resurrection Boulevard, for which he received 2001 and 2002 ALMA Award nominations for Best Actor.

Having co-directed and co-produced the film A Million to Juan with Paul Rodriguez, Plana celebrated his solo directorial debut with The Princess and the Barrio Boy, the first Latino family film to be produced by Showtime. The film received two 2001 ALMA Award nominations and won the 2001 IMAGEN Award for Best Made for Television Movie. His episodic television directorial debut was the Resurrection Boulevard episode Saliendo, which received a GLAAD Award for Best Dramatic Episode of the Year. He has directed several episodes of Nickelodeon's hit series The Brothers Garcia, receiving a Humanitas Award nomination and winning the IMAGEN Award for its third season finale.

Plana is also the co-founder and executive artistic director of the East L.A. Classic Theatre, a group comprised primarily of Hispanic American theatre professionals. The East L.A. Classic Theatre has been dedicated to serving the Latino community through educational outreach programs to primary and secondary schools and through bilingual productions of traditional and contemporary classics. Through the East L.A. Classic Theatre, Plana has developed a unique and innovative literacy program called Beyond Borders: Literacy Through Performing Arts, designed to enable students to expand their educational horizons and academic achievements by moving beyond their personal, cultural and vocational borders. His distinct talent lies in his provocative adaptations of classic Shakespearean plays, specifically conceived for minority communities with little or no theatre going experience.

As an actor Plana has starred in more than 70 feature films, including JFK, Nixon, Salvador, An Officer and a Gentleman, Lone Star, Three Amigos, Born in East L.A., El Norte, 187, Primal Fear, Romero, One Good Cop, Havana, The Rookie, Silver Strand, Picking Up the Pieces (with Woody Allen), Goal! The Dream Begins, Half Past Dead and The Lost City. He also appeared in El Muerto, as well as AmericanEast and Towards Darkness, with Ugly Betty co-star America Ferrara.

On television he starred in the Showtime Original Miniseries Fidel, as the notorious Cuban dictator, Batista, as well as Showtime's Noriega: God's Favorite. He has portrayed leading roles in four critically acclaimed television series, Veronica Claire, Bakersfield P.D., Total Security and City of Angels. He has also appeared in several Emmy Award-winning programs, such as Sweet 15, Drug Wars: The Camarena Story, The Burning Season: The Life and Death of Chico Mendes and a special episode of L.A. Law, which also received an Imagen Award. He has portrayed recurring roles on The West Wing, 24, CSI, Monk, Almost Perfect and The Closer.

Plana has been very active in live theatre. On Broadway his credits include Zoot Suit and The Boys of Winter. He has performed in leads at the Mark Taper Forum in Zoot Suit, Richard III, Widows and The Reader. He has appeared in a wide variety of productions in many other venues, including Figaro Gets a Divorce at the La Jolla Playhouse; Rum and Coke, Cuba, His Teddy Bear and Bang Bang Blues at the New York Public Theatre; Rum and Coke and Charlie Bacon and His Family at the South Coast Repertory Theatre; The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (The Musical) at the Pasadena Playhouse; A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet at the California Shakespearean Festival; Fugue at Syracuse Stage Company; in Ariel Dorfmann's Mascara at the Arizona Theatre Company; and has received high critical acclaim for his portrayal of Santiago in Nilo Cruz' Anna in the Tropics at South Coast Repertory, the first Latino play to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

He is the recipient of two Nosotros Golden Eagle Awards for outstanding work in film and television, as well as five Los Angeles Dramalogue Awards for Theatre. In 2005 he was honored as Educator of the Year by Loyola Marymount University's Department of Education and in 2006 received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Millenium Momentum Foundation at the Music Center.

Plana is the proud father of Alejandro and Isabel and has been happily married for 19 years to actress Ada Maris, who starred in Nurses on NBC and Nickelodeon's The Brothers Garcia.