David Castañeda

For the Colombian footballer, see David Castañeda (footballer).

David Castañeda (born October 24, 1989) is an American actor. In 2019, Castañeda began portraying Diego Hargreeves in the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy.

David Castañeda
Castañeda in 2019
Born	(1989-10-24) 24 October 1989 (age 35) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	California State University, Fullerton (BA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2009–present
Height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)

Early life

Castañeda was born October 24, 1989,^[1] in Los Angeles^[2] and was raised in Sinaloa, Mexico.^[3][a] He returned to the United States when he was 14 and attended William Workman High School in California.^[2] Castañeda initially studied civil engineering in college with the intention of taking over the family business after he finished his studies.^[4] However, he became interested in film direction and switched to major in film production and international business in 2007 at California State University, Fullerton.^[3][5] Castañeda then moved into acting and started auditioning for roles. He studied part-time while pursuing an acting career, eventually graduating in 2015.^[5][6]

Career

Castañeda has been involved in acting since he was 17,^[4] but only started taking acting more seriously after he volunteered for a role when a director asked for actors to participate in his film during a seminar while at university.^[5] He played various minor roles in a number of productions, such as End of Watch, and also acted as a main character in a short film Maddoggin', which won the audience award at the NBC Universal Short Cut Film Festival.^[5] In 2013, he landed a role playing Jorge on ABC Family's TV series Switched at Birth.^[7] In late 2016, he was cast in the role of Hector in the film Sicario: Day of the Soldado released in 2018.^[8] He also has a major role in an independent film El Chicano, a supporting role in Jean-Claude Van Damme's We Die Young as well as minor roles in films such as the Billy Crystal's film Standing Up, Falling Down.^[4]

In 2017, he was cast in his most prominent role yet playing Diego Hargreeves / Number 2 in The Umbrella Academy,^[9] which was released on Netflix in February 2019.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Drive-By Chronicles: Sidewayz	Saul
2011	Maddoggin	Pedro González	Short film
2012	End of Watch	Mexican Cowboy
2015	Freaks of Nature	Tony Cerone
	Human Behavior	Mark	Short film
2016	Love Sanchez	Rene
2017	The Ascent	Louis Medina
	Corrida	Jefe	Short film
	Why?	He
2018	Sicario: Day of the Soldado	Hector
	El Chicano	Shotgun
2019	Standing Up, Falling Down	Ruis
	We Die Young	Rincon
2020	The Tax Collector	Vargas	[4]
2021	The Guilty	Officer Tim Geraci
2025	Ballerina	Javier Macarro
TBA	Splitsville	TBA	Post-production
	Chalino	Chalino Sánchez	Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Lie to Me	Boyfriend	1 episode
2009, 2012	Southland	Tough Kid, Carlos	2 episodes
2014	Switched at Birth	Jorge	7 episodes
2014–2015	Jane the Virgin	Nicholas	3 episodes
2015	Bound and Babysitting	Eddie	TV movie
	The Player	Listo Salvado	1 episode
2016	Blindspot	Carlos	1 episode
	Going Dark	Sam	Unaired TV pilot
2017	The Legend of Master Legend	Mandy Mandujano	Unaired TV pilot[10]
2019–2024	The Umbrella Academy	Diego Hargreeves	Main cast
2022	Robot Chicken	Interrogator / My Strange Addiction Narrator (voice)	Episode: "May Cause Involuntary Political Discharge"
2023	Poker Face	Jimmy	Episode: "Escape from Shit Mountain"
	Most Dangerous Game	Victor Suero[11]	Main cast (season 2)[12]

Notes

1. One source says he is a native of Sinaloa, Mexico and moved to the US at age 14.^[3] Another source says he was born in Los Angeles, raised in Mexico, then went to the US for high school.^[2]