Born in Mexico City, Jose attended USC School of Cinema and Television where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in 1986. He represented the Cinema School for the USC Best Foreign Student award finishing in second place. In 1989, Jose attended the AFI director’s program. Out of 50 students, he was one of the five students selected to return for the second-year program.
While waiting to enter his second year at AFI, Jose submitted a script to the first Universal Studios Latino Contest where two films were selected to be produced by Universal. Jose wrote and directed the short film “Mission Dolores”, which won the 1990 Award of Excellence given by the Film Advisory Board, Inc. and presented by Jack Lemon.
Upon finishing his studies at AFI, Jose directed over fifteen documentaries in Mexico. In 1992, Jose was offered the position of Head of Production at Arua Films, creators of the famous movie “Like Water for Chocolate”.
In 1994, Jose opened his own production company, KINEMA FILMS, and a year later he produced SOLO for Universal Studios. Since then, Jose line produced a high range of feature films including “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer”. Jose’s career continued growing making several TV and Feature Films such as “Fidel”, “Blow”, “Keep the Faith”, “Bermuda Triangle” “The Librarian”, “The Air I Breath”, “Love in the Time of Colera”, “Dragon Ball”, “Chronicles of Narnia”, “Texas Rising”, “The Romanoffs”, “911’”, “Mayans”, “Swat” and “West World” and the TV pilot “The Bridge”.
His two latest projects are: “Coyote” produced by Sony Pictures, starring Michael Chiklis, produced by Michelle Maclaren, and created by David Graziano; “Washington Black”, produced by Disney/Fox and created by Selwyn Hinds.
Jose belongs to the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture & Videotape Editors Guild, the AFI Alumni Association, the Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, the USC Alumni Association, and the Mexican Society of Writers (SOGEM).