Carlito Rodriguez

Although his Dominican mother and Cuban father met, fell in love and began their relationship in New York City, Carlito was born in Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic, when his mother had to take an emergency trip back home while pregnant with him.

Carlito grew up in the Bronx, where he developed a love for reading, drawing and of course, baseball, via which he'd daydream of one day playing for his beloved Yankees. After his mother died in an auto accident shortly before he graduated Junior High, Carlito spent some time with his father down in Miami, with his aunt in Manhattan and with his oldest sister in Philadelphia. Having spent his teen years in three very different cities gave him what he considers a double-edged sword: his perspective isn't tied to any one place, per se, but he feels he doesn't have any one place to call "home."

A few years into his twenties found him attending various campuses of the School of Hard Knocks, where his love for storytelling took full hold. He eventually made his way into magazine writing, landing a spot on The Source magazine's editorial staff after a couple of assignments. While at The Source, Carlito developed several properties, one of which he sold to MTV to become "Station Zero," the network's first and only animated hip hop-themed program.

After working his way up to Editor-in-chief of The Source, he left to pursue his writing full-time, working on other media projects, including a video game, a magazine re-launch and a weekly news program for BET.

At present (2007), Carlito has several projects in various stages of development (a book series for the 10-13 year old boys' market, a television series pilot, and a couple of screenplays).

Though he still has no one place to call "home," he currently rests his head in New York City, but will be moving to Los Angeles later this year.