Hailed as `The Father of Chicano Theatre` in America, Luis Valdez is an American actor, playwright, writer, and director. Considered to be the pioneer of Chicano Movement, Valdez established the theatrical troupe El Teatro Campesino in 1965. He is popularly known for the Broadway play Zoot Suit (1979) which he later adapted into a movie with the same name in 1981.

Valdez received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Musical Picture for Zoot Suit and he won the Best Picture Award at the Cartagena Film Festival in 1982. However, it was his 1987 movie La Bamba, a biographical movie that chronicles the life of the Chicano rock `n` roll star Ritchie Valens, that brought him mainstream commercial success in America. In 2017, he voiced the character of Tio Berto in the movie Coco.