Manny Siverio

Manny Siverio is a New York based Latino Stunt Coordinator, Stuntman, 2nd Unit Director, Actor & Writer who has been involved in the film business for roughly 25 years. The eldest child of Efrain Siverio and Gladys Quintana. He was born April 23, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Hatillo/Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Manny moved back to NY in 1980 where he began working as a health club and martial art instructor. His martial art background is the universal element which ties together all the components to his diversified career of stunt coordinating, stunt work, writing, 2nd unit directing, acting and mambo dancing. He began his martial art training in 1970 at the age of 10. Over the years he has accumulated a martial art background in Tae Kwon-Do, Boxing, Kick-Boxing, Kali, Grappling and Wing Chun. He has used his martial arts training in physical fitness, bouncing, writing, film work and dancing. He started his MCIA School of Fighting in Hatillo, Puerto Rico in the late 70s and moved it to New York City until the mid to later 80s.

He is one of the few Latinos to simultaneously belong to SAG (Screen Actors Guild), DGA (Directors Guild of America) and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). He was honored by both SAG & the EEOC during their 1997 Latino Recognition Night for his accomplishments; and has been featured in such publications as Cristina Magazine, Hispanic Magazine and The San Juan Star Newspaper. He has been featured on several television programs like Univision's "Despierta America" (Hispanic version of Good Morning America) and Latination. His standing in the industry has kept him busy working in NYC and traveling around the nation and Puerto Rico, performing, coordinating and directing stunts.

Manny worked as a health club physical fitness instructor at the Jack La Lanne Clubs and as a Service Supervisor for the NY Vertical Health Club in the 1980's. He also started a successful One-On-One Martial Art Training business, became a freelance writer for the martial art magazines, author two martial art training books and a 7 tape video series on martial art training. It was this diversified background that helped him launch his film career. To this day, he has even been able to incorporate his martial art background into his mambo (salsa) dancing. Though not limited to fighting, he is highly respected in the NYC area for his fight work as both a stunt coordinator and as a stuntman. In the past, his has been hired to help prepare such actors as Michael DeLorenzo, Wesley Snipes, Grant Show, Matt Dillon, Robert Townsend and Michelle Rodriguez (Girlfight) for film fight sequences. His fight choreography has been sought after by HBO (Undefeated with John Leguizamo), Showtime (Paradise TV Pilot with Kirk Acevedo) and by Fox TV (Boxing Coordinator for Jonny Zero TV series).

Manny Siverio started writing freelance articles for martial art magazines at 18 and has continued writing ever since. During his late teens to his mid-twenties he contributed to every major martial art magazine in the U.S. including Black Belt Magazine, Karate Illustrated Magazine, Inside Kug-Fu Magazine, Inside Karate Magazine and was a columnist for Combat Karate Magazine. During his tenure as a martial arts writer he authored two books for Rainbow Publications (High Intensity Martial Art Training For The Martial Artist and The Complete Guide To Focus Glove Training). He later authored and starred in a 7 tape instructional martial art video series which was produced by Panther Productions. His writing interests shifted as he became more involved in the film industry and has written several screenplays to date. He got into the WGA (Writers Guild of America) when he sold an idea to Paramount Pictures for an episode idea of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Manny Siverio started learning how to dance the New York "On 2" Style of Mambo (Salsa) dancing in 1995. His first dance instructors were Addie Diaz (who later became his wife) and Nelson Flores. He later moved on to a more advanced level and took lessons at both the Eddie Torres and Jimmy Anton's Dance Studios. Manny eventually became a member of the Eddie Torres "Jammers" where he developed the experience that has made him the dancer he is today. He was exposed to performing on several prestigious stages as a dancer for artist such as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz. He was an original cast member to the first Off-Broadway Mambo Musical: "Latin Madness", has performed at the 3rd Annual Congreso Mundial de La Salsa in Puerto Rico, the 1st Annual Congreso Mundial de la Salsa in New York and the 3rd Annual West Coast Salsa Congress in Los Angeles (to name a few). Manny was the first to successfully combined his martial art & stunt background with mambo dancing. He began working with the "Latin Dance Ensemble" where he took part in choreographing a martial arts style Mambo number (Mam-Fu in 1999) and since then has choreographed a Knifefighting mambo number (Hustler late 2000) for the Addie-Tude Dance Company. He has traveled to perform in such places at Hawaii, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, London and Paris.