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Pelé: Birth of a Legend (2016)
PG
Mexican actor Diego Boneta first appeared on screen at the age of 12 in 2003 as a contestant in ‘Código F.A.M.A.’ a children's singing reality television series in Mexico. This was followed by acting roles in two children's telenovelas: ‘Alegrijes y rebujos’ and ‘Misión S.O.S. aventura y amor’ in 2004. In the former, he played the role of Ricardo Sánchez while in the latter, he was seen as Christian Martínez (in 125 episodes). He next worked in a couple of episodes of another Mexican telenovela ‘Rebelde’ in 2005-2006.
In 2005 again, he appeared as himself in an episode of the hourlong Mexican action-sports game show for kids ‘La energía de Sonric'slandia’. Thereafter, he moved to the USA and was seen in an episode of action-adventure comedy series ‘Zeke and Luther’ (2010) and also bagged recurring roles (5 episodes each) in the American teen drama series ‘90210’ (2010-2011; role: Javier Luna) and ‘Pretty Little Liars’ (2010–11; role: Alex Santiago). In 2011, he made his film debut with a comedy television movie ‘Mean Girls 2’ which was directed by Melanie Mayron and had Meaghan Martin, Donn Lamkin, Linden Ashby and Dan Coleman in the main roles. In it, he played the role of Tyler Adams, a popular soccer player.
Diego Boneta’s feature film debut and also his breakout role came in 2012 when he starred alongside big names like Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Alec Baldwin in the musical comedy drama film ‘Rock of Ages’. The film, based on Chris D'Arienzo’s rock jukebox Broadway musical of the same name, had him in the lead role of Drew Boley, a youngster who aspires to become a big successful rockstar. Directed by Adam Shankman, the movie received mixed critical reviews and was a commercial failure. Diego Boneta, though, won the favourite movie actor award at the ‘ALMA Awards’ as well as the ‘CinemaCon' Rising Star of Year Award. He was next seen as one of the five principal characters of the MTV miniseries ‘Underemployed’ (2012-2013).
His film releases in the year 2014 and 2015 include the thriller ‘City of Dead Men’ (2014), the thriller drama ‘Eden’ and the horror ‘Summer Camp’ (both 2015). On television, in 2015, he played the part of the warrior Amram in CBS two-part historical romance drama miniseries ‘The Dovekeepers’ and bagged the main role of Pete Martinez in the 1st season of the American satirical black comedy slasher series ‘Scream Queens’. This season of the Fox Star series received mixed reviews from critics and has a Rotten Tomato score of 68%. In 2016, he played the role of Italian-Brazialian footballer José Altafini in the biographical sports drama ‘Pelé: Birth of a Legend’ and acted in an episode of romantic comedy drama and satirical telenovela ‘Jane the Virgin’.
The next couple of years, Diego Boneta was seen in Ry Russo-Young's fantasy mystery drama ‘Before I Fall’ (2017), Chris Robert's drama movie ‘Another You’ (2017, also associate producer), Lennart Ruff's sci-fi thriller ‘The Titan’ (2018) and Chris von Hoffmann's horror thriller ‘Monster Party’ (2018). However, it was his portrayal of the Mexican multi-Grammy-award winning international superstar Luis Miguel in the Netflix and Telemundo series ‘Luis Miguel: The Series’ (3 seasons, 27 episodes, 2018-2021) that really brought him tremendous appreciation from audience and critics alike. His performance in this Spanish language American biographical series bagged him the ‘Produ Awards’ for Best Actor (Best digital strategy) and also twice earned him a nomination at the ‘Platino Awards’ for Best Actor in Miniseries or TV-Series (2019 and 2022). He also executive produced 15 episodes of the series. The series has an IMDB rating of 8.1/10.
Meanwhile, Diego Boneta continued to work in other projects and acted in the sci-fi action-adventure movie ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ (2019), the sci-fi crime drama ‘New Order’ (2020), the horror crime drama 'Revenge Ride'(2020), the comedy romance 'Love, ‘Weddings & Other Disasters' (2020), the action-adventure fantasy 'Monster Hunter' (2020), the romance crime thriller 'Die in a Gunfight'(2021) and the romance comedy drama ‘Father of the Bride’ (2022). The first film, the sixth installment in the ‘Terminator’ franchise mostly received positive reviews and has a Rotten Tomato score of 70%; however, it failed at the box office. It was directed by Tim Miller and had Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead roles. For the second film, he once again turned executive producer. His performance in it got him a ‘Platino Award’ nomination in the best supporting actor category. The last film, directed by Gaz Alazraki, was based on Edward Streeter’s 1949 novel by the same name and also starred Andy García, Gloria Estefan, Adria Arjona and Isabela Merced. It released on HBO Max and proved to be a huge success. On Rotten Tomato, it has an approval rating of 80%.
Diego Boneta’s upcoming movies include Francesco Lucente directed action crime fantasy ‘Starbright’ and Jonah Feingold directed romance comedy ‘At Midnight’.
