Ricardo Mamood-Vega
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Actor Ricardo Mamood grew-up against the odds in Argentina, got back to acting in Asia and that ultimately brought him to Hollywood.
After playing the lead in a children's play at Kindergarten, all he wanted to be was an actor. However shortly after his stage
debut, his mother (single and with a new born) could no longer support him, so he went to live with a couple who didn't have any
children and owned the kindergarten.
They watched many old films together and the couple took him to see his very first drive-in film - they hid him in the trunk of their car, since only those above 18 were allowed in drive-ins back then.
At about 7 years old, he managed to open their home safe and steal
money, with which he bought half a dozen G.I. Joe's action figures.
Playing "It takes a Thief" cost him his home. Disappointed, the couple
sent him back to his mother, who at that time was living in a tiny and
crowded kitchen in an old rat and flee infested building, with his
younger half-brother. They had a single bed that stood in the kitchen
during the day and on which his mother and brother slept while he took
the "bed" on the kitchen counter-top. He soon outgrew the length of the
counter-top, so he had to set his rolled-towel pillow on top of the
cooker's burner.
When he was 9, his family moved to the poor and violent slums outside
Buenos Aires Capital City. He started working in the mornings and early
evenings chopping meat at a butcher shop called La Vaca Bionica (The
Bionic Cow) during the week, while still managing to attend primary
school in the afternoons. On the weekends, he worked as a bricklayer
boy while also taking care of his 4 year-old half-brother. Acting didn't happen for many years with the exception of playing Cowboys and Indians, and keeping the habit of
watching old films and re-runs of old TV shows every chance he had,
while most kids were playing soccer.
His mother would spend most of her day and sometimes nights at work, so
after his half-brother would fall asleep, he would join his street
buddies and listen to tunes on the radio or sneak into the local bars
and pool houses. Nights on the street were the only times when there
were no duties or responsibilities. At that time he also helped as a
"glue-boy" at night, making flour-water-based glue in a bucket in the
back of a pick-up truck for for a group of grown-ups to stick up anti
government pamphlets during the military dictatorship.
As years went by, he became violent at home and
neighborhood, and begun getting into all kinds of trouble. He left
home for months when he was 12, wandering around the capital city,
sleeping in parks and breaking into small grocery stores at night in
order to eat with other street kids. His mother managed to find him
and bring him back. At about 13, he started going to high school while
working at a clandestine chemical factory making industrial detergent.
At 15 he was performing on stage with alternative theater groups while
managing to work and attend high school at night. He dropped out of
high-school 3 months before graduation and never got to college, but at
17 (claiming he had some English language skills learned during high
school) he managed to land an entry level job at the Buenos Aires city
subsidiary of Leather's Best Inc., a New York-based multinational
company dedicated to manufacturing and trading of bovine-finished
leather.
He didn't speak any English with the exception of very few words he
learned from TV and film, but he managed to hide that fact for a while.
When he was not in the filing room, he would sit in front of a Siemens
telex machine, typing word-by-word, handwritten manuscripts which
senior executives would drop at his desk box. He didn't have a clue of
what he was writing about. A top executive of the company caught him
and instead of firing him, he sent him to learn English on his account
for a couple of months. After that, he felt encouraged to get books and
pretty much learned the language at work, by watching hundreds of
subtitled films, reading science-fiction, writing poetry and acting in
English-spoken plays.
Accidentally, met one half-brother while buying a walk-man at a mall in
Buenos Aires (Spinetto Mall) when he was 16. That mall was built on the
same property where the old grocery stores he stole food from used to
be. That brotherly encounter resulted in meeting a total of seven half
brothers and sisters he didn't know he had, as well as finally meeting
his father, whom he only met once and never again.
A few years later he was Deputy Executive Director, in charge of raw
materials purchase and quality assurance and started to travel to the
US for marketing and technical training. After that, he ended up
building an extremely successful career (sidetracked acting)
in the trading and corporate world and went on to work in senior
management positions for several multinational corporations.
In 1991, he was struck by lighting while he was talking on the phone at
a leather factory (Esposito Tannery) he was visiting. He was rushed to
a local hospital but, strangely enough and although it left him
unconscious for forty minutes, he didn't suffer any burns and came out
uninjured. However, the handset he was using at the time he was struck
(extension #33) was badly burnt and misshaped by the heat. He went back
to acting and in 1994 he produced and directed his stage adaptation of
"Chronicle of a kidnapping" written by
playwright Mario Diament. Later he moved to New York and then to Hong
Kong, where he lived for 10 years. He moved to Los Angeles where he lives with his two children. He was married since 1995 until his divorce in 2021.
In Hong Kong, he went onto work for companies such as Paccess and Nike,
Inc., creating for them pioneer supply chain management and global raw
materials consolidation and distribution programs in Asia, while still
managing to work on films and theater projects, until he left the corporate world for good.
In Hong Kong, he played Richard Roma on stage at the Hong Kong premiere of "Glengarry Glen Ross" by David Mamet and since making the transition back to acting, has earned roles in numerous films and TV shows.
Besides his film and stage credits, Ricardo has been seen in numerous
TV commercial campaigns worldwide. He has been the first US national announcer (voice-over) in Spanish for Cadillac and later for Acura.
After playing the lead in a children's play at Kindergarten, all he wanted to be was an actor. However shortly after his stage
debut, his mother (single and with a new born) could no longer support him, so he went to live with a couple who didn't have any
children and owned the kindergarten.
They watched many old films together and the couple took him to see his very first drive-in film - they hid him in the trunk of their car, since only those above 18 were allowed in drive-ins back then.
At about 7 years old, he managed to open their home safe and steal
money, with which he bought half a dozen G.I. Joe's action figures.
Playing "It takes a Thief" cost him his home. Disappointed, the couple
sent him back to his mother, who at that time was living in a tiny and
crowded kitchen in an old rat and flee infested building, with his
younger half-brother. They had a single bed that stood in the kitchen
during the day and on which his mother and brother slept while he took
the "bed" on the kitchen counter-top. He soon outgrew the length of the
counter-top, so he had to set his rolled-towel pillow on top of the
cooker's burner.
When he was 9, his family moved to the poor and violent slums outside
Buenos Aires Capital City. He started working in the mornings and early
evenings chopping meat at a butcher shop called La Vaca Bionica (The
Bionic Cow) during the week, while still managing to attend primary
school in the afternoons. On the weekends, he worked as a bricklayer
boy while also taking care of his 4 year-old half-brother. Acting didn't happen for many years with the exception of playing Cowboys and Indians, and keeping the habit of
watching old films and re-runs of old TV shows every chance he had,
while most kids were playing soccer.
His mother would spend most of her day and sometimes nights at work, so
after his half-brother would fall asleep, he would join his street
buddies and listen to tunes on the radio or sneak into the local bars
and pool houses. Nights on the street were the only times when there
were no duties or responsibilities. At that time he also helped as a
"glue-boy" at night, making flour-water-based glue in a bucket in the
back of a pick-up truck for for a group of grown-ups to stick up anti
government pamphlets during the military dictatorship.
As years went by, he became violent at home and
neighborhood, and begun getting into all kinds of trouble. He left
home for months when he was 12, wandering around the capital city,
sleeping in parks and breaking into small grocery stores at night in
order to eat with other street kids. His mother managed to find him
and bring him back. At about 13, he started going to high school while
working at a clandestine chemical factory making industrial detergent.
At 15 he was performing on stage with alternative theater groups while
managing to work and attend high school at night. He dropped out of
high-school 3 months before graduation and never got to college, but at
17 (claiming he had some English language skills learned during high
school) he managed to land an entry level job at the Buenos Aires city
subsidiary of Leather's Best Inc., a New York-based multinational
company dedicated to manufacturing and trading of bovine-finished
leather.
He didn't speak any English with the exception of very few words he
learned from TV and film, but he managed to hide that fact for a while.
When he was not in the filing room, he would sit in front of a Siemens
telex machine, typing word-by-word, handwritten manuscripts which
senior executives would drop at his desk box. He didn't have a clue of
what he was writing about. A top executive of the company caught him
and instead of firing him, he sent him to learn English on his account
for a couple of months. After that, he felt encouraged to get books and
pretty much learned the language at work, by watching hundreds of
subtitled films, reading science-fiction, writing poetry and acting in
English-spoken plays.
Accidentally, met one half-brother while buying a walk-man at a mall in
Buenos Aires (Spinetto Mall) when he was 16. That mall was built on the
same property where the old grocery stores he stole food from used to
be. That brotherly encounter resulted in meeting a total of seven half
brothers and sisters he didn't know he had, as well as finally meeting
his father, whom he only met once and never again.
A few years later he was Deputy Executive Director, in charge of raw
materials purchase and quality assurance and started to travel to the
US for marketing and technical training. After that, he ended up
building an extremely successful career (sidetracked acting)
in the trading and corporate world and went on to work in senior
management positions for several multinational corporations.
In 1991, he was struck by lighting while he was talking on the phone at
a leather factory (Esposito Tannery) he was visiting. He was rushed to
a local hospital but, strangely enough and although it left him
unconscious for forty minutes, he didn't suffer any burns and came out
uninjured. However, the handset he was using at the time he was struck
(extension #33) was badly burnt and misshaped by the heat. He went back
to acting and in 1994 he produced and directed his stage adaptation of
"Chronicle of a kidnapping" written by
playwright Mario Diament. Later he moved to New York and then to Hong
Kong, where he lived for 10 years. He moved to Los Angeles where he lives with his two children. He was married since 1995 until his divorce in 2021.
In Hong Kong, he went onto work for companies such as Paccess and Nike,
Inc., creating for them pioneer supply chain management and global raw
materials consolidation and distribution programs in Asia, while still
managing to work on films and theater projects, until he left the corporate world for good.
In Hong Kong, he played Richard Roma on stage at the Hong Kong premiere of "Glengarry Glen Ross" by David Mamet and since making the transition back to acting, has earned roles in numerous films and TV shows.
Besides his film and stage credits, Ricardo has been seen in numerous
TV commercial campaigns worldwide. He has been the first US national announcer (voice-over) in Spanish for Cadillac and later for Acura.