Nicholas Gonzalez

Nicholas Edward Gonzalez is an American actor. He is best known for playing the roles of Alex Santiago on the Showtime television series Resurrection Blvd. and Dr. Neil Melendez on the ABC television series The Good Doctor. Born in San Antonio, Texas, Gonzalez is conversant in Spanish, having lived in a bilingual household. He attended Central Catholic High School in San Antonio, where he was an accomplished cross-country and track runner, winning the Texas State Championship in the mile and two-mile. After graduating in 1994 and turning down a presidential appointment to West Point, Gonzalez pursued an English degree at Stanford University in California. He spent two terms at Oxford University in England. The following summer, he returned to Europe on a research grant where he studied at Oxford and Trinity College, Dublin to complete his thesis on James Joyce's Ulysses. While at Stanford he had chanced on acting after taking an improvisational theatre elective and began taking part in student theater. He was approached to do a one-man theater piece called Gas by María Irene Fornés. Alma Martinez, an actress and Stanford professor, encouraged him to become a professional actor. Upon graduating from Stanford in 1998 Gonzalez decided to pursue acting and, with Martinez's help, connected with the theatrical movement in San Francisco. He was once encouraged to use his middle name Edward to conceal his ethnicity and go by "Nicholas Edward" but declined to do so.