Mario López

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Mario López
López as Bobby Cruz in Pacific Blue
Birth name	Mario López, Jr.
Born	October 10, 1973 (age 33) San Diego, California, United States
Height	5ft 8in
Official site	http://www.mariolopez.net
Notable roles	A.C. Slater in Saved by the Bell Greg Louganis in Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story

Mario López, Jr. (born October 10, 1973) is an American actor who has appeared on several television series. He is perhaps best known for the character AC Slater he played on the show Saved by the Bell.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Career
2 Brief filmography
3 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Career

Lopez's first professional role was younger brother on the series "A.K.A. Pablo." At the age of 11, he was cast as the drummer and dancer on Kids Incorporated in 1984. Mario is a capable drummer and has been seen in his many television roles playing the instrument. López became known in the early 1990s as A.C. Slater in the popular television sitcom Saved by the Bell. López's character was a masculine, athletic student, which helped garner the actor a sizeable teenage-girl fan base. He also maintains a close friendship with fellow castmate Mark-Paul Gosselaar. The character of Slater became somewhat of a phenomenon on the Internet after the distribution of a SBTB clip of Slater fighting Zack with heavy metal music with the caption, "Don't Mess With A.C. Slater!" (Although the most popular caption is "Don't Fuck With A.C. Slater!")

Since his stint on Saved by the Bell, Lopez has enjoyed a career as host of a variety of television contest shows. He hosted Pet Star on the Animal Planet channel and was co-host of ESPN2's ESPN Hollywood. He is the captain of the L.A. Armed Response team on GSN's Extreme Dodgeball. Like fellow Saved by the Bell actor Dustin Diamond, he was featured as a celebrity guest on The Weakest Link.

On USA Network's "Pacific Blue," he played police officer Bobby Cruz. Lopez also served as the host of the syndicated series "Name Your Adventure". He also starred as the Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis in "Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story."

He was also one of the co-hosts of the talk show "The Other Half", which aired from 2001-2003. This show attempted to counter the popularity of the female ensemble talk show "The View". The Other Half featured 4 male co-hosts, including Danny Bonaduce and executive producer, Dick Clark.

As late as 2001, Lopez' likeness was featured in the Disneyland attraction Space Mountain in Anaheim. He played a space captain that informed guests of the adventure-to-come while they waited in queue for the ride.

In March 2006, he joined the cast of the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful playing the role of Dr. Christian Ramirez. On July 18, 2006, Lopez was released from his B&B contract. He guest-starred as a plastic surgeon who drives Christian Troy to jealousy over his good looks in an episode of FX Network's Nip/Tuck during the show's fourth season, which began in Fall 2006.

Starting on September 12, 2006, López appeared as a dancer and runner-up on ABC's Dancing With the Stars, partnered with professional dancer Karina Smirnoff, who made her series debut. The show lasted 10 weeks with Lopez losing in the final round against former Dallas Cowboy running back Emmitt Smith and partner Cheryl Burke. Lopez made a strong start in the program, which raised several questions as to whether or not he was a ringer who already had dance training. Initially he said that he had not received any formal training, but later revealed that though he hasn't had formal ballroom training, he has studied tap and hip hop styles. He would eventually finish as the runner up to Emmitt Smith.