Danny Trejo, an actor known for his bad ass roles and hard, chiseled exterior has been a veteran of horror films since Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn.  Before the cult classic vampire film Trejo had a collection of credits including ‘Prisoner,’ ‘Prison Inmate,’ ‘Tough Prisoner #1,’ 2^nd Inmate’ and ‘Tattoo Artist.’

Finally in the late 1990’s he began picking up more memorable roles, beginning with the vampire cult classic by Rodriguez and Tarantino where he played Razor Charlie, a bad ass vampire who easily towered over and out muscled co-star George Clooney.  In fact, Trejo was brought back for the two consecutive films in the Till Dawn series; Texas Blood Money and The Hangman’s Daughter.  To round out the From Dusk Till Dawn experience, Rodriguez brought Trejo back one final time for his series by the same name on his El Rey network.

In 1997 he picked up the roll of Johnny-23 in the movie Con Air alongside John Malkovich.  While bit roles were still peppered into his career at this time, his type-casting worked in his favor as he picked up more involved roles.

Many fans know of his work in the Grindhouse style horror movie Machete, but ironically this character began in Spy Kids, also by Rodriguez as Uncle Machete to the main stars, on screen niece and nephew Carmen and Juni.

Trejo picked up the Machete again in a fake trailer preceding the Rodriguez film Planet Terror.  Arguably the fake trailer gained more notoriety than the film it lead up to!  Rodriguez noticed this and decided to roll the dice on a movie made from just snippets put together to make the trailer and work backwards, making a full feature film.  Watch the original trailer bellow that started it all!

 

Despite the challenge of working backwards the film instantly gained cult status.  Grabbing the bull by its horns Rodriguez quickly saw the potential and began working on two sequels, Machete Kills which was released in 2013 and the third installment which is currently under production, Machete Kills in Space.

Trejo also found a home in many of Rob Zombie’s films, including Devil’s Rejects and 2007’s Halloween.

In an unlikely turn of events, a man who is known from his menacing exterior and brute force, Trejo has taken many voice acting jobs.  Some of the more notable ones include; The Adventures of Puss in Boots, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Phineas and Ferb.  Can you believe it?  A man who used someone’s intestines to swing out a window worked on children’s television shows!  It kind of blows your mind, doesn’t it?!

Currently Trejo has been balancing his movie and television appearances with commercials.  Knowing his background in film these commercials had me rolling!  I love a man who can step back and laugh at themselves, and that is exactly what these commercials do.  He’s not afraid to shed his hard exterior for the sake of comedy.

The first time we see Trejo in a commercial is in 2015’s Superbowl commercial for Snickers.  In this parody he plays a hostel Marcia from the Brady Bunch, and with hair like that he certainly can rival her blonde locks.  Take a look bellow!

https://youtu.be/y3RclLJraqw

He then followed up his commercial career with the recent tv spots for Sling TV.  The first one is a very traditional Trejo, wearing his black shirt and exposing his muscles, sitting backwards on a chair and owning his look.

https://youtu.be/kO8qG6XetTM

 

However, the second one is what had me in stitches.  In this Sling TV commercial he is dressed as a hipster working in a coffee shop where he is trying to comfort a young heartbroken women in his own, awkward way.

https://youtu.be/La6fbhrkcBA

While many see this actor as just a one trick pony, he has many different avenues in the entertainment industry, including movies, television, commercials, and voice overs for kid shows as well as video games.  While I can’t wait for Machete Kills in Space, I find everything he does entertaining and I look forward to him continuing his career in whichever way makes him happy because I haven’t seen him make a wrong choice yet.

 

Here is a bonus video of how they shot the Brady Bunch Snickers commercial with Danny Trejo.

https://youtu.be/oTXiHFOnveA

And click here for another bonus Snickers video that wasn’t the easiest to find.