Detailed Biography

Wilmer Antonio Valderrama is an American actor and television personality, best known for the role of Fez in the sitcom That '70s Show, the host of the MTV series Yo Momma, and the voice of Manny in the children's show Handy Manny.

Early life

Valderrama was born in Miami, Florida, the son of Sobeida and Balvino Valderrama, who owned a farm equipment rental company. His mother is from Colombia and his father is from Venezuela. The family moved to Venezuela when he was three years old, then to Los Angeles when he was thirteen. He has two sisters, Marylin and Stephanie, and a brother named Christian.

Career

Valderrama got his start performing in numerous plays, including A Midsummer Night's Dream and Rumors. He made his professional debut in a Spanish-language Pacific Bell commercial. At his drama teacher's suggestion, he got an agent and was immediately cast in the CBS miniseries Four Corners and in Omba Makamba on the Disney Channel. He made his big screen debut starring opposite Freddie Prinze Jr., Brittany Murphy, Matthew Lillard and Jessica Biel in the Warner Brothers film Summer Catch.

Valderrama played Fez on That '70s Show from 1998–2006; he was a junior in high school when the pilot episode was filmed. He also played DJ Keoki in the 2003 film Party Monster alongside Macaulay Culkin, Chloë Sevigny, Wilson Cruz and Seth Green. He has produced and hosted the MTV series Yo Momma since 2006, and appeared as many as three times on another MTV mainstay, Punk'd, hosted by fellow That '70s alum Ashton Kutcher.

Valderrama appeared in the Los Angeles Times critic's choice play Blackout, an adaptation of the feature film Drunks, and starred opposite Anjelica Huston and Ben Kingsley in the Actors' Fund of America one-performance only reading of Sunset Boulevard. He filmed the short film La Torcedura in which he played the lead, and appeared in The Darwin Awards, an independent film directed by Finn Taylor, starring Winona Ryder and Joseph Fiennes.

In animation work, Valderrama voiced Rodrigo in Clifford's Really Big Movie, playing alongside John Ritter, Wayne Brady and Jenna Elfman. He also voices the main character, Manny, in Disney Channel’s Handy Manny series for preschoolers . He had a starring role in El Muerto, an indie film directed by Brian Cox and based on the successful comic book created by Javier Hernandez. In January 2007, Valderrama launched his own men's fashion label called "Calavena".

Valderrama made an appearance in Paula DeAnda's music video for "Easy", with Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Wisin & Yandel's video Imagínate featuring the rapper T-Pain, as well as Colombian singer Fanny Lu's video "Tu No Eres Para Mi", where he portrays her boyfriend.

Currently, he is working on a new sitcom he has created for Nickelodeon, entitled Earth to Pablo. It is about a family that receives a teenage space alien instead of the foreign exchange student they were expecting.

Personal life

Valderrama maintains close friendships with former That '70s co-stars Topher Grace, Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson.

He dated Mandy Moore for 18 months between 2000-2002 and Lindsay Lohan in 2003-04. He also dated Hilary Duff. Much buzz was generated from a March 2006 radio interview with Howard Stern, where Valderrama complained about the size of his penis, claimed to have stolen Moore's virginity, and rated the supposed sexual prowess of singer-actresses Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ashlee Simpson.Many of the claims Valderrama made during this interview have since been disputed by the other parties involved.. In 2006, Valderrama appeared on The Howard Stern Show and detailed that he and Moore were each other's "first loves" although he did not claim that their relationship was sexual, as was alleged by several media sources who misquoted his remarks. Moore later referred to Valderrama as a "good guy" and a "gentleman" , although she has stated that his comments about their relationship were "utterly tacky".

He has also been rumored to have dated Alexandra Cheron.

According to the TV gossip show, Access Hollywood, Valderrama purchased the 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser driven by Eric Forman on That '70s Show for $500 USD after the conclusion of the series.

During a July 2008 interview on The Jace Hall Show, Valderrama stated that his home was previously occupied by Chuck Norris.