EFREN RAMIREZ 'Napoleon' actor turns tables

The actor, who played Pedro in the film, says fans call him DJ Pedro.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Ask any of the zealots who made "Napoleon Dynamite" the surprise hit of 2004: The film's teenage mouth-breather character, Pedro Sanchez, possesses many enviable "skills." Among them: owning a "sweet" bike, displaying a talent for "hooking up with chicks" and being the only kid in the school with a mustache.
Now, add to that list DJ skills.
Turns out Efren Ramirez, 22, the actor who brought the character to life -- and who is partly responsible for the fanboy must-have "Vote for Pedro" T-shirt -- is making a name for himself as a nightclub turntablist.
He's rocked packed houses from Hollywood to Boise, Idaho, and in the coming weeks he'll hit cities in Texas, Pennsylvania, Washington, Florida, Michigan and Kentucky on his self-backed "Pedro Tour."
"I go up on stage and say" -- in the character's laconic Mexican accent -- 'I hope you voted for me,'" says Ramirez. "'Now I'm going to show you my DJ skills.' Then I start mixing hip-hop, house, '80s rock and early techno. Everybody's tripping out."
What he spins
At a rave organized by Ramirez's event-planning company, Nocturnal Rampage, last month, the actor-DJ ascended to the booth of Hollywood's Arena Nightclub to spin selections from Bell Biv DeVoe, Cypress Hill and James Brown's Dead, among other eclectic picks.
"Everybody was chanting, 'Pedro! Pedro!'' Ramirez recalls. "They're surprised. They don't know what I can do."
Turns out the Los Angeles native -- who ultimately caved in to what his fans are going to call him anyway: DJ Pedro -- first cultivated his turntable talent by lugging record crates for his older brother Julio, a former club DJ. But soon, little brother had built a sizable record collection of his own and started Nocturnal Rampage, which threw raves that drew up to 3,000 people, Ramirez says.
What's next?
This fall finds him in two movies: September's "Crank," in which he plays the transvestite confrere of Jason Statham's adrenalized action hero character, and the comedy "Employee of the Month," in which Ramirez portrays a box boy at a Costco-like store opposite Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook.
While Ramirez's turn as a triumphal nerd in "Napoleon Dynamite" remains his defining achievement, he sees DJ'ing as a way to distinguish himself from the character.
"You don't want to be typecast as Pedro forever," he says. "You want to do something totally different."