Alfonso Faustino, Jr. is an actor, born in Charleston, South Carolina on August 2, 1964, to Julie and Alfonso Faustino. He has one sister named, Irene Faustino. Presently, he lives in San Francisco, California and part-time in Southern California.

Early Career

While working at Oracle Corporation, founded by Bob Miner, Alfonso's tennis acquaintance from the San Francisco Tennis Club, and Larry Ellison, Alfonso decided to pursue his life-long passion -- acting. After submitting his picture to numerous talent agencies in San Francisco, he signed on with Mary Tonry of Tonry Talent Agency. Soon, he was auditioning for television commercials and industrials.

Throughout his childhood, Alfonso's father taught him the importance of keeping a postitive mental attitude -- a mind-set that helped his father overcome many life threatening challenges, while serving in the United States Navy during the Korean War. This mind-set would be the most important tool Alfonso would use throughout his life to help him overcome the challenges in his career, personal life, non-profit animal conservation projects, and his sport's life, as an equestrian (jumper), fencer, club tennis player, and amateur Ferrari track racer, participating in the 2004 Mille Miglia in Italy.

First Commercials

Alfonso's first television commercial milestone took place in 2004, when he was selected for a Sun Microsystems commercial; soon after, he would be selected for other television commercials, such as, Hewlett-Packard, 3Com's Palm Pilot, Qualcom, Californians for Rx, SBC, Yahoo!, and many others. While on the set of these commercials, he would use his networking skills to get acquainted with the producers and directors, who in turn, introduced him to other film producers and directors.

First Films

In time, through these connections, Alfonso would get parts in film projects. In 2004, he had his first film milestone, which was a character role in the film called, Loving Alfie, whereby, he played the devil trying to seduce the leading man into a life of sin. In 2006, Alfonso landed his first leading-man role in the film called, A Dress For The Wedding; he played a husband to the leading woman, who finds a suitcase full of money, which ultimately belongs to the mob, on their way to a wedding. Both of these films not only introduced Alfonso to the business in front of the camera but also behind the camera -- production work. In time, Alfonso met some of the top names in the film industry, such as, Fred Roos, Jeff Allard, Howard Deutch, David Ladd, who is the son of Allan Ladd, and Doug Claybourne.

He was intrigued by the whole film production process; however, the business of raising money for films really caught his attention. So, while auditioning for films, television commericials, and working as a software engineer manager for Oracle Corporation, Alfonso started to build his business network in the high-tech industry, whereby he made acquaintances with some of the top names in the Silicon Valley area.

Business Network

Soon, he introduced his high-tech contacts with the top names in the film industry in order to create a business network, whereby film producers can meet potential film investors in the high-tech arena. Alfonso's business networking skills, to this day, continues to develop and progress towards success.

While riding his horse with his horse trainer, Marian Nelson, of Riverside Equestrian Center, she introduced him to an actress named, Jennifer Siebel. Jennifer and Alfonso shared many things in common; and, it was she who sparked a new interest for Alfonso -- conservation -- specifically, animal protection and conservation.

Animal Conservation Project

Alfonso loves all animals: exotic and domestic -- predator and prey -- land, sea, and air. He wanted to add value to a conservation effort, so Jennifer introduced a project to him -- the Tanzania Park project. He learned all about the project before taking it on for funding.

After difficulties in getting the project funded, he kept positive to find a solution; eventually, he found a resource to fund his Tanzania Project -- Oracle Corporation. While working at Oracle, Alfonso cultivated relationships with Charles Phillips, President of Oracle Corporation. He submitted his project to Charles, and he reviewed it with Larry Ellison, who, in turn, gave the project the blessing for funding. Alfonso's Tanzania Project was funded.

After getting funding for the Tanzania Project, Alfonso directed his time, energy, and funds to the Greyhound Adoption Center -- a center protecting retired racing Greyhounds from being killed after their racing career ends.

Keeping Positive

Throughout Alfonso's personal life and career in corporate America and in the film industry, Alfonso kept strong through countless rejections by utilizing his father's advice, "Keep Positive!" It was his father's advice that helped Alfonso overcome the rejections and failures and to learn from them in order to gain progress toward success. To this day, like Alfonso's film career, the Tanzania Project and his Greyhound project continue to progress and develop towards successful results.

Sources

http://www.oracle.com/oramag/profit/04-may/p24csf.html

http://alfonsofaustino.com/