Carlos PenaVega is a known singer and an actor from the United States. He is very popular there and is recognized wherever he goes, especially by young people.
He became famous for being in a band Big Time Rush and the Nickelodeon tv show called also Big Time Rush in which he went by a name Carlos Pena Jr.
Many of his fans met him during this period of his career and they decided to stay with him and follow his work later.
He was also known for his hosting on the show called Webheads.
Early years
The popular personality of Carlos PenaVega was born on August 15 in 1989 by the name Carlos Roberto Pena Jr. in Columbia, Missouri. He always says that he is very thankful for the opportunities he had gotten in his life, especially when he was scouted for Nickelodeon.
He is of Dominican, Spanish and also Venezuelan descent because his father is from Venezuelan and Spanish descent and his mother is Dominican. This makes him physically different from other people he met on set and it made it a bit hard for him to go through everything alone.
Although he was born in Columbia he was raised in Florida, Weston to be specific. He said that Florida can be wild at times, but that he had a nice time overall.
He educated himself in the Sagemont Upper School. Carlos was a cheerleader there. Carlos was very involved in everything that was going on in his school and he was one of those kids that can always be seen doing something with their friends and teachers.
He was also in productions like Grease and Man of La Mancha in his school. It was interesting for him to try acting and he was very motivated to move on in this field.
He went to the American Heritage School for a while, before he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career, and there he also had a role in school’s version of Titanic. It was very fun to make this, he recalls, because all of us had seen it on TV.
While performing it, he instantly fell in love with dancing and singing. He was always one of the most alive people in the cast and he loved to spend a bunch of time helping others out as well.
His first real role was in a famous TV series ER, in which he was featured when he was only 10 years old. He didn’t have a major role, though, he was only going through the show as a character called Arlo Escobar. He said that he was thrilled to meet all of the senior actors on the show.
He also had other roles that year, he was in Judging Amy, Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide and also Summerland. In all of these films and shows, he had guest roles, nothing too major.
He was still in high school when he first appeared in a TV commercial. It was a commercial for the Super Soaker’s water gun. He always liked the action and he was actually very interested in the product itself so it was fun for him to really be a part of it.
He even had a picture of himself on the packaging of the product which was a weird experience for him. He sensed as if it was some kind of karma.
After finishing high school he went to the Boston Conservatory where he studied musical theatre. He said that this was a dream come true for him and that it was very exciting to begin this journey.
Career development
At that time his manager made him go and audition for Big Time Rush. He thought he was perfect for the role of the quirky Carlos.
Carlos wasn’t really interested in the idea but he sent his audition tape and got the role two years later. He couldn’t believe that he did and little did he know that he was going to be a huge thing in a few years.
With gaining this role, he moved to Hollywood in 2009. Hollywood has brought him the rise of his career, as so many other actors did.
Big Time Rush is a famous American boyband that was made in 2009. It became a cult band with millions of fans all over the world. Many people went to their concerts and followed them around, which was weird because the series was staged.
There are 4 boys in the band, Carlos PenaVega, Logan Henderson, Kendall Schmidt, and James Maslow. They are all vocals in the band.
In 2010, the band released their first studio album titled BTR that had the series main track in it. Carlos helped write the song called “Oh Yeah!” from it.
After the huge success of the first album, they decided to make another one, and it was released in 2011 titled “Elevate”. He was thrilled, as well as the other members of the band.
On this album, Carlos helped with writing the song “Invisible”. He wrote it with J.R. Rotem, Cody Williams, Charley Greenberg, and Daniel Andrew Wayne.
In 2013 they released another album. It was titled “24/Seven” and Carlos co-wrote almost every track on this album.
Some of the songs he co-wrote are “Picture This” that he did with James Maslow, “Na Na Na“, and “Lost in Love” that was inspired by his beautiful wife Alexa Pena Vega.
After that album, they went on the Summer Break Tour. The tour was extremely successful and lucrative and they soon became quite rich.
After the band fell apart in 2014, all of the bandmates started their solo career. So did Carlos, he decided to make songs in Spanish.
In February of 2014, he released his first-ever solo song that was called “Electrico”.
That song got to the top 10 list of the Latin iTunes but wasn’t successful anywhere else.
Carlos got an award on the Nickelodeon Colombia Kids’ Choice Awards that was held in Bogota. He was very honored.
A year later, he was featured on a very watched series called Dancing with the Stars. He was in the 21st season. Carlos was partnered with Witney Carson, a dancer.
Carlos and Witney got to the finals but were unfortunately eliminated in it and got the 4th place.
His wife Alexa was also competing in the same season of the show.
As for his other TV appearances he had appeared in a popular TV series called “The Walking Dead” and in “Modern Family”.
Personal life
Before he met the woman of his life he was in two serious relationships.
From 2003 until 2010 he was in a relationship with his childhood sweetheart named Chelsea.
In summer 2010 he started seeing Samantha Droke, who is also an actress. They have been together for two years after they realized that they weren’t good together.
Carlos got engaged to Alexa Vega in August of 2013. They got married a year later in January.
The ceremony was held in Mexico in Puerto Vallarta. They both decided to take the surname “PenaVega” as theirs. So they would show how equal in their relationship they both are.
Alexa Vega is also an American actress and a singer, just like Carlos. She is most famous for her role in the Spy Kids movie. She played Carmen Cortez.
She is of Columbian descent. In 2010 she married Sean Covel, a film producer but they got divorced.
They are both Christians and their faith is important to them.
They have a YouTube channel together. It is called LexLovesLos and they have a little over 700k followers.
They share their life and vlog about their vacations and their kids and everything beautiful that happens to them together.
The most viewed video on that channel is from 2012. It is a video titled “Call Me Maybe” which was a big hit of Carla Rae Jepsen and the video shows a lot of celebrities (including Big Time Rush) dancing to this song.
Carlos has two sons. He tries to be a role model for them because he wants them to grow up in a healthy family with high moral values.
He spends as much time he can play with them because he knows that his sons miss him while he is on a business trip or a concert.
He feels bad for leaving them alone so often but he is aware that he compensates it while he is at home.
The first son was born in December of 2016 and is called Ocean PenaVega which is quite an interesting name.
The second one was born in June of 2019 and is called Kingston PenaVega.
He is very close to his family and is a good son to his dad Carlos Pena, Sr. and his mother Margarita Pena.
He is also on good terms with his three brothers called Andres, Javi Pena, and Antonio Pena.
Quick summary
Full name: Carlos Roberto Pena Junior
Date of birth: August 15, 1989
Birthplace: Columbia, Missouri, United States
Age: 30
Profession: actor, singer, musician, dancer, songwriter
Height: 168 cm
Weight: 68 kgs
Net Worth: $6 million