John Leguizamo had to cancel his speaking engagement on April 24, 2024, due to a conflict with his filming schedule. Mr. Leguizamo is a very busy artist, and we did attempt to reschedule, but we were unable to find a date that works for all parties.
Ticket holders will be contacted by email with details about the refund process. We hope you will join us for other future events at the Grunin Center.
About John Leguizamo
John Leguizamo first came to prominence on the lecture circuit touring around the nation’s colleges and stages with his one- man show Ghetto Klown, which traced his life from growing up in Queens, through his avantgarde theater origins in the 1980s, to his feature film career and beyond. In the spirit of this provenance, Leguizamo is now taking his entire story—the lessons he’s learned, the characters he’s encountered, his passion for education, his struggles against racism and poverty—to audiences around the country with An Evening with John Leguizamo.
A multi-faceted performer and Emmy Award winner, John Leguizamo has established a career that defies categorization. With boundless and visceral creativity, his work in film, theatre, television, and literature covers a variety of genres, continually threatening to create a few of its own.
Most recently, Leguizamo was seen in The Infiltrator opposite Bryan Cranston. Previously, he was seen in Sisters opposite Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, action comedy American Ultra with Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, and The Hollow Point opposite Patrick Wilson and Jim Belushi. Leguizamo has also starred alongside writer/director Jon Favreau in Chef, and in the breakout comedy hit Ride Along opposite Ice Cube and Kevin Hart.
In addition, he recently wrapped production on the third season of the critically acclaimed, Emmy-nominated Netflix series Bloodline in which he plays the role of “Ozzy Delvecchio” and stars alongside Kyle Chandler, Ben Mendelsohn, Linda Cardellini, and Chloe Sevigny. He also recently reprised his role of “Aurelio” in John Wick 2 opposite Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, and Common.
In October 2017, Leguizamo debuted his first comic book Freak at New York Comic Con. In the first issue of a three-part series, he brings his signature uninhibited humor to the page. Drawing from his one-man Broadway show and the Spike Lee film of the same name, Freak tells the story of Leguizamo’s early life, from birth to immigration to stardom. Its shocking cast of characters, tinted by memory and a retro color palette, includes his tyrannical father, suicidal grandfather, and exorcist grandmother. It impeccably illustrates the joys, pains, and most awkward moments of his youth, with artwork evoking the grit and glamour of Queens, New York, in the 1970s.
From November 2017 to February 2018, Leguizamo starred in the hit one-man Broadway show Latin History for Morons. Inspired by the near total absence of Latinos in his son’s American history class, Leguizamo embarked on a frenzied search to find a Latin hero for his son’s school project. From a mad recap of the Aztec empire to stories of unknown Latin patriots of the Revolutionary War and beyond, Leguizamo broke down the 3,000 years between the Mayans and Ricky Ricardo into 90 irreverent and uncensored minutes in his trademark style. On May 1, 2018, the show was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Additionally, it was announced that Leguizamo would receive a special Tony Award for his lifetime body of work as both a playwright and performer.
📷: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
The Blauvelt Speaker Series is funded in part by the generosity of the late Bradford Thomas & Eleanor G. Blauvelt and the Wintrode Family Foundation. This year’s 2023-2024 additional sponsors include Carluccio, Leone, Dimon, Doyle & Sacks, LLC, The Citta Foundation, Arlene and Frank Dupignac, Jr., Kean University, Stella and Marshall Kern, New Jersey Natural Gas, and Novins, York, Jacobus & Dooley.
