Steve Cardenas

Stephen Antonio "Steve" Cardenas (born May 29, 1974) formerly known as Steven Cardenas, is an American martial artist and retired actor, perhaps most noted for playing Rocky DeSantos in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series.

Early years

Cardenas was born Stephen Antonio Cardenas on May 29, 1974 at the Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, a city in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. After living his first 2 years in Hampton, Cardenas was raised in San Antonio, Texas. He is of half Mexican descent. He started training in martial arts when he was about 12 years old and reached black belt in tae kwon do at age 16. Steve Cardenas has been in martial arts for 28 years. He earned 5th degree black belt in tae kwon do and a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Power Rangers and acting career

At age 20, Cardenas moved to Los Angeles to audition for a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers role that would change his life. His character, Rocky, replaced Jason Lee Scott (played by Austin St. John) as the Red Ranger in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series, and he later became the Blue Ranger for Power Rangers Zeo. He had no previous acting experience and had to learn on the job. Cardenas left the Power Rangers series during Power Rangers Turbo, due to contract disagreements. Many years later, starting at the 2007 Power Morphicon convention, he began making convention appearances with other former cast members. He has since appeared at Anime Expo 2009 and Power Morphicon 2010.

Steve Cardenas (musician)

Guitarist Steve Cardenas began his musical career in Kansas City and has been part of the New York City jazz community since 1995.

Cardenas has performed and recorded with many well-known musicians. He was a longstanding member of the Paul Motian Electric Bebop Band (which later became the Paul Motian Octet), and Joey Baron's band, Killer Joey. Cardenas is a member of the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, Steve Swallow Quintet and the Ben Allison Band. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, North and South America and Asia, performing at international music festivals, theaters and clubs. He also leads his own trio and has released four recordings as a leader featuring many of his own compositions.

As an educator, Cardenas is on faculty at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. He has previously been on faculty at the California Institute of the Arts, Siena Summer Jazz Workshop, Stanford Jazz Workshop and Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music. Cardenas is co-author, with editor Don Sickler, of the Thelonious Monk Fakebook, released by Hal Leonard Publishing. The Thelonious Monk Fakebook marks the first time all of Monk's compositions have appeared in one volume, many of them appearing for the first time.