Rico Rodriguez
Rico Rodriguez is an actor, born 1998.
Rodriguez was a child actor from Bryan, Texas with a couple of credits behind him, Chanchito in Epic Movie and a part on Cory in the House, when Modern Family began in 2009 and made him a fixture in American homes until 2020.
Manny Delgado was an odd creation for a network sitcom: a small boy who dressed like a middle-aged poet, fell in love constantly and talked to adults as an equal. The joke only works if the kid playing him refuses to be cute about it, and Rodriguez did exactly that, delivering lines far too old for him completely deadpan and never once asking the audience to find him adorable. He has several Screen Actors Guild Awards from the show's run.
The career since has been steady rather than loud. He was Jose in Endgame and Charlie Foster in The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards, both in 2015, and has moved into voice work with Cuco in Americano and Ice in Sneaks. He also turned up as himself on Double Dare, which is the sort of thing that happens when a country has watched you grow up.
Movies (5)
TV (3)
Where to start with Rico Rodriguez
There is one obvious answer and it is the right one: Modern Family, eleven seasons of it, with Manny Delgado as the reason to sit through the weaker later years. Start anywhere in the first four; the character is fully formed from the pilot and the writing for him is sharpest early.
After that the list is short and mostly for completists. Endgame and The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards are the attempts at grown-up film work, both from 2015, and neither is much seen. Sneaks and Americano are the animated roles, which suit him, since the voice is the distinctive instrument.
Epic Movie is where he started as a small child, and Cory in the House is the Disney Channel credit from the same period, included here for the record rather than the quality.