Joseph Castillo

Joseph Ricardo Castillo is known for his ability to light up the screen, not because his size but the charisma he brings to the screen frame by frame. Born on July 16, 1979 in Chicago, Illinois, to Sheila Fuentes (Rowan), who worked as a waitress and single mom due the death of his father illegal immigrant Elmer Ricardo Castillo (from Guatemala) in a Los Angeles, California shooting when he was only 4 years old. He has two sisters, Angie and Sheila and has Italian, as well as some German, Irish, and Scottish, ancestry. His career began when he traveled to Beijing, China at the age of 29. After conducting his first live commercial Theater performance in Fall of 2014, Beijing Television's producer said that "it was the highest audience rating, you scored a 99%", and tried to convince him that he needs to spend more time on the big screen and less time as a Pastor. However he insisted for one year to turn down most offers till 2016 when he had a change of heart. As recorded by Global Times: (In the beginning, Castillo did not want to become famous, but his mind is changing as things develop. He seems to be popular among the Chinese audience. "I go on a lot of shows; there are tall people, short people and fat people. However, every show I am on, they told me we had skyrocketing ratings because I have a gift for it," he said. In addition, he is not worried that losing weight would weaken his signature recognition among the audience as Sibai, and he is confident that people would still like his personality and humor on stage. "I realized that maybe my life could encourage people. Maybe I can change their lives. Maybe I can do something good for China by doing these shows," he said.) Shortly thereafter, his career forced him and his family into national fame, including his Chinese mother in law. A documentary on CCTV picked up his story and it become the highest rated show in the history of the series Foreigners in China (2016), and in smaller shows like Tianjin TV's Heros (2016) and Shanxi TV Super Teacher (2017). As fate would have it, he did, and subsequently appeared in back to back shows all year long such as BTV's "Beijing Ke" and played a role in the movie (in production) Asura (2018). Not only were new shows appear each month on network channels all over China, various live streaming mobile broadcasting apps have had him as guest with live viewers over 300,000 at at time. News papers, and paparazzi have continued to follow his career in spite of the fact he still insists on serving as pastor in his little expat Church in Beijing.