Alberto Rosende

Alberto Carlos Rosende Jr. is an American actor and singer, known for his role as Simon Lewis in the Freeform supernatural drama Shadowhunters from 2016 to 2019. From 2019 to 2024, he starred as Firefighter Blake Gallo in the NBC drama Chicago Fire.

Early life and education

Rosende was born to Martha Cristina Ferrucho and Alberto Carlos Rosende, a major-general in the U.S. Army Reserve. He has a younger brother, Diego, who works in the film production industry. He is of Colombian and Cuban descent. Rosende attended Fort Lauderdale Children's Theater, where he appeared in a number of productions, which included starring as Link Larkin in Hairspray. He attended St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, where he was a member of the STA Players. While there, Rosende performed as Danny Zuko in Grease, Emile De Becque in South Pacific, and Dr. Lyman Sanderson in Harvey. In April 2013, Rosende was diagnosed with testicular cancer. In 2015, Rosende graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Career

Rosende's first professional acting credit was as a swing dancer in the 2013 short film The Swing of Things. In 2015, he guest-starred in the CBS police procedural drama Blue Bloods, in the fifth-season episode "Sins of the Father", as Carlos Santiago. That same year, he guest-starred in the NBC police procedural drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the seventeenth-season episode "Catfishing Teacher" as Jordan Messina. On May 2, 2015, it was announced that Rosende had been cast as Simon Lewis in the Freeform supernatural drama Shadowhunters, based on Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments book series, which ran from January 12, 2016, to May 6, 2019.