Carlos Gonzalvo Rodríguez

With reflective, sharp, and critical humor, Professor Mentepollo is one of the most beloved characters by contemporary Cuban audiences.

Carlos Gonzalvo is a favorite actor for many Cubans, he is a very popular comedian, thanks to his embodiment of Professor Mentepollo, a kind of multiple character, omnipresent in every aspect of national reality.

As a child, he never felt any inclination toward acting, on the contrary, he liked mechanics, driving, and cars. At a moment in his life, during adolescence, he wanted to be a pilot or ship captain, but they never gave him the career because he had low grades, he was academically poor, especially in sciences. Finally, he completed his pre-university studies and then through a convocation, he joined a theater group.

His acting training is basically theatrical. The first thing he did in his professional life at only 16 years old, from 1995, were almost 10 years of dramatic theater in the "Pinos Nuevos" group on the Isle of Youth.

Later he performed several works on national television and something curious is that before playing Mentepollo, the humorous programs in which he participated went unnoticed and after his role in Deja que yo te cuente, that's when people recognized that it was him who was doing those programs.

Without a doubt, "Deja que yo te cuente" was a big step forward in his career, because despite being a humorous space, it served for directors to take notice of him; he has to thank Mentepollo for all of that.

"Imagine, Nelson told me that a project of his had been approved for television and that he had a character proposal for me. He gave me all the characteristics... A little liar, kind of talkative, and mainly a know-it-all like those you see a lot on the street, he told me how he wanted me to approach it. I tried to form the character in my mind. I even thought that each chapter could be a different character. Then I thought better about it. Even Dustin Hoffman doesn't do that", Carlos comments.

He not only does comedy, but he is an actor who is interested in continuing to do dramatic work. Although he hasn't had much time lately to do theater, he has been able to participate in productions like Santa Camila de La Habana Vieja, with Armando Suárez del Villar and the last thing he did was a play by Amado del Pino, Penumbra en el noveno cuarto, directed by Osvaldo Doimeadios.