MistyMountainHop

Wilmer Valderrama was born in Miami, Florida on January 30, 1980. His parents, Sobeida and Balbino Valderrama, moved to Venezuela when he was three years old then to Los Angeles when he was thirteen. He has two sisters, Marylin and Stephanie. He didn't speak English upon his arrival, but he quickly learned the language in school and began drama classes during high school. Valderrama has said that he was aided in learning English from watching shows such as I Love Lucy.

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, Chloe Sevigny, and Seth Green.

Valderrama recently appeared in the Los Angeles Times Critic's Choice play Blackout, an adaption 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. In animation work, Valderama voiced Rodrigo in Clifford's Really Big Movie, acting alongside John Ritter, Wayne Brady, and Jenna Elfman. He also voiced the main character, Manny, in Disney Channel’s Handy Manny series for preschoolers.

Grazzhopper

Love the new OP!

Quarterley

Fez is so pure.

MistyMountainHop

At the beginning of the series, he was definitely more innocent.

msstock87

Thanks for the new thread!

I agree at the beginning Fez was way more innocent.

MistyMountainHop

You're welcome!

Yes, and when he went too far (in the early seasons) it was more out of naivety, trying to fit in, and not knowing how far to push a joke. But later on (after he screws up with Rhonda), he becomes purposely inappropriate.

msstock87

Right, I feel in later seasons they had Fez going too far when he knew better by that point.

MistyMountainHop

To make him a punchline/punchline-giver. But even if he had to become that (which he didn't), they could've had him tell better jokes instead of turning him into an inappropriate creep.

Grazzhopper

Agreed, he could've at least doled out clever punch lines instead of being nothing but a creep.

msstock87

Yes, you can be funny without being a creep!

MistyMountainHop

And Wilmer Valderrama has a good sense of comedic timing. He's very funny as Fez. So he would've done well if he'd been given quality material to work with.

msstock87

I agree, I think he has some great comedic timing. He made me laugh a lot.

MistyMountainHop

The show had such great resources; if only they'd been utilized better

Speaking of resources, I wonder how Fez afforded his wardrobe. Although he wore the same few pairs of pants, he had a lot of different shirts and shirt-vest combinations.

msstock87

That's a good point. Unless he made a lot of money we didn't know about.

MistyMountainHop

His first real job is at the DMV. I doubt the Erdmans gave him much of an allowance. But he had enough money to buy himself candy and food from The Hub and present for his girlfriends before season 5. *ponders*