Who is Mauricio Amuy Tenorio?

Mauricio Amuy Tenorio (29) will be playing the role of a Maya chief in Apocalypto (contrary to earlier speculation, the lead role of Jaguar Paw has gone to Rudy Youngblood). Mauricio is a model and actor from Costa Rica, retains Mexican citizenship, and was awarded the first Celebrity with a Big Heart Award in 2003: From an early age, Mauricio Amuy learned from his parents the joy of helping unfortunate children. He supports Proyecto San Francisco de Asis, an organization that helps abandoned children in Costa Rica secure a place to live and keeps them off the streets and away from drugs and prostitution. In March 2004, Mauricio will be in Costa Rica to assist in fundraising for this project helping it to expand into other Latin American countries. Mauricio also supports Children of Refugees, a program helping to provide food to children in Latin America. Mauricio sees the need to help children in Peru affected by contaminated water as well as children with AIDS and cancer in other countries who need immediate assistance. He is always willing to take time from his busy schedule to help the children's causes as much as possible. Mauricio's numerous modeling and acting credits include many runway fashion shows ranging from Levis Jeans to Yves St. Laurent and the Helen Yarmak couture collection in New York City. He has worked in Japan, Europe, Latin America and the USA. He has appeared on a billboard in New York's Times Square as well as in national ad campaigns for Macy's and Wal-Mart. He has been featured in such magazines as "Teleguia" (Costa Rica), "Metropolis" (Japan) and "Vogue" (Germany). His acting credits include film, video and television roles in "Spider-Man II", "Juwanna Mann", "Sex in The City", "Guiding Light" and many others. He is also depicted as the "Michael The Arc Angel" as painted by young surrealist artist Angelo Rusciano a private masterpiece for artist Mary J. Blige. Read more. Here is frame from the Apocalypto teaser trailer with Mauricio Amuy in it: