Melwin Cedeño
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| Melwin Cedeño | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 27, 1964 Puerto Rico |
| Occupation | Actor, Comedian, Merengue Musician, Singer |
Melwin Cedeño (born December 27, 1964 in Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican actor, comedian, merengue musician, and singer. Cedeño is better known for his comedic character role as Chevy, el Ponzonu, a Nuyorican teenager.
Cedeño studied pre-medics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce. However, he dropped out, and moved to study Drama at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras.
While studying, Cedeño joined a merengue orchestra called Los Nenes de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Kids). His partners in the orchestra later became the members of the popular merengue and reggaeton group, Límite 21 (Limit Twenty One). He also joined the university theatre group working in several plays during his incumbency with Los Nenes.
He also debuted in television shows in dramatic roles in soap operas such as, Alejandra (Alexandra), and Apartamento de Solteras (Single's Apartment). He achieved recognition for his dramatic role as a young drug addict in the telenovela Andrea.
At the end of the 1980s, Cedeño started working as a comedian at popular shows like Show del Mediodía (The Midday Show) and Kiosko Budweiser ( The Budweiser Small Market). It was during this time that his character of Chevy, el Ponzonu was born. His popularity spawned a daily show titled Con Lo Que Cuenta Este País (With What This Country Counts On), broadcast by Telemundo Puerto Rico, and produced by Hector Marcano, which remained among the top shows in audience ratings for several years.
In the early 1990s, Cedeño hosted the comedy game show Alto Voltaje (High Voltage), also produced by Marcano in Telemundo. After the end of the series, Cedeño decided to retire briefly from public life. He moved to the United States exploring offers from Telemundo and Univision.
In the late 1990s, Cedeño returned to Puerto Rico and took up again, working in theatre productions and television comedies. He produced a film titled Chevy... Episodio I (Chevy...Episode One), which marked the come-back of his popular character. In 1999, he started hosting a new show for kids titled Pégate con Chevy (Stick with Chevy) which received the acknowledgement of Puerto Rican children's audiences. However, in 2001, the show was cancelled, for unknown reasons, despite its favorable reviews.
Cedeño still works regularly in television and theatre, and his character of Chevy remains popular among children.
[edit] Personal life
Cedeño has been married twice. He married his first wife early in his career and divorced in the early 1990s. In 1994 he married Phaedra Michalzik, a popular television model, comedian and sex symbol at the time. They procreated a son, and are still married as of 2007.
[edit] Trivia
Cedeño is a close friend of boxer Héctor "El Macho" Camacho. This brought on one of his most difficult moments when Camacho invited him to sing - as Chevy, - the Puerto Rican National Anthem La Borinqueña (The Borinquen Lady), before Camacho's Pay Per View world title challenge of Julio César Chávez in Las Vegas on September 15, 1992. Chevy sang the anthem with famous Puerto Rican cuatro player Pedro Guzmán.
A great deal of people criticized the selection of Melwin Cedeño, in the role of Chevy for this task, but he answered his critics by stating that in the performance, he sang the Puerto Rican anthem by heart, whereas popular Mexican singer Vicente Fernández, in order to sing it correctly, had to read the words of the Mexican anthem from a small paper.
