Wilmer Valderrama's Real Name: Wilmer Valderrama

Quick answer: The actor is known professionally as Wilmer Valderrama. Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television, via Encyclopedia.com, lists the birth date January 30, 1980, in Miami, Florida, and says he was raised in Venezuela. A Syracuse University lectures biography independently says he was born in Miami, moved to Venezuela with his family at age three, and returned to the United States as a teenager, but does not give a calendar date. That exact date appears in only one of the two sources, the Encyclopedia.com entry. Neither account supplies a longer legal name.

Real name and early life

The Encyclopedia.com entry records the birth as January 30, 1980, in Miami, Florida, says he was raised in Venezuela, and names his parents as Balvino and Sobeida Valderrama. It also says he later attended high school in Woodland Hills, California. The Syracuse biography independently says he was born in Miami, moved to Venezuela at age three, and returned to the United States as a teen, and that he and his sisters were the first in the family to speak English. That page does not give a birth date or a longer name.

Career highlights

Both accounts identify his breakthrough as Fez, the foreign-exchange student on Fox's That '70s Show. Encyclopedia.com dates the series credit to 1998 onward and lists related awards appearances, including Teen Choice and ALMA events. The Syracuse biography independently says the role catapulted him to stardom and mentions later Teen Choice Awards, then records later work on NCIS. It also names the Disney series Handy Manny, which it says introduced preschoolers to Spanish, and later producing work including the MTV series Yo Momma. Encyclopedia.com's earlier credit list does not independently cover NCIS, so that later series comes from the Syracuse account. The Syracuse page also notes a 2013 ALMA Award for outstanding social activism, board work with Voto Latino, and later producing through WV Entertainment. It describes him as fluent in both Spanish and English. Encyclopedia.com independently notes his high-school years in Woodland Hills, California, after the family's return to the United States.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Wilmer Valderrama are looking for the actor known from That '70s Show and later from NCIS. The sources used here do not give a longer legal name.