News from Ray
My BELLO Spotlight: The Issue That Landed Before Lopez
By Ray Diaz · November 2026
Some press finds you at exactly the right moment. BELLO found me in March 2016.
Issue 149 of BELLO magazine opened its Spotlight on me: page after page, shot by photographer Sonny Tong, with a sit-down interview to go with it. You can still flip through the whole issue: read my BELLO Spotlight on Issuu.
The timing
The issue hit as I was about to start the second season of Lopez on TV Land, playing Hector opposite George Lopez. BELLO told my story the way I would have: a kid born in Key West, who started modeling in New York, studied drama, then moved to Los Angeles and broke in with East Los High on Hulu and independent films like Stone Markers and In Da Cut.
Reading it now, what gets me is how much was about to happen. Lopez, then Real Husbands of Hollywood, then Close Range. That spread was the calm before all of it.
What I said back then
They asked how I stay in shape. I told them four to seven workouts a week, and that filming fitness videos for social media kept me sharp. That has not changed. If anything, it turned into a whole second career.
They asked about role models, and I named Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Mark Wahlberg, Channing Tatum and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. They asked about my dream job, and I said a film like Jarhead or American Sniper, or a crime story like The Departed. Ten years later I still want that. I have stood in a few of those rooms since, and I am not done.
Thank you, BELLO
Thank you to the BELLO team and to Sonny Tong for seeing it early. Moments like this are why I keep a record. You can find more of my print work on my modeling page and every feature on my press page.