Nico Quijano was born in Manhattan New York and raised in mostly the Bronx. His mom was Irish from Brooklyn and his dad was from Puerto Rico. So they lived back and forth from the island to New York. He has several black belts in martial arts and was always fascinated with movies as a kid. He worked in films in the late 70's and 80's as an extra. He went to Thailand and became a 3 time Muay Thai Province Champion living there for over 5 years. He was also a monk for a period.
He was a police officer for a few years in Jersey. He came back and served in the military serving in infantry, airborne, special forces, recruiting, military intelligence, etc. Later on he was a police officer in Oakland California. He worked patrol, investigations, the violence suppression unit, etc. Nico also served as a Thai speaker and Spanish speaker passing both the DLPT and DLAB test in the military, landing him many overseas deployments working the PDF in Panama and the Thailand Special Forces Group, just to name a few.
He is married to his wife Chau (from Vietnam) and they have two grown children. Nico has continued to act in over 40 films, some of his resume is on IMDB and Casting Networks. After working as a police officer, he went to work for the VA Hospital helping homeless veterans find housing. Eventually he went back into overseas security where he served mostly in Africa as head of a security team.
After covid hit, he decided to write a script for his friends and himself. That is where the idea of "Ranger" came from. Mostly based on true facts. So with $10K of his own money, he decided to shoot for several days in several cities in Germany and the rest in Hollister California where he lives. Hollister is a great backdrop to portray Texas. The story evolves around a special forces soldier in Afghanistan who fighting terrorism, he finds out that his father has died back home. After serving more than 20 years, he decides to retire and head back home to the ranch. After being away from home so long, he realizes that the place has changed, cartels, drugs, prostition, rampart crime, etc. So Ranger, decides to takes matters into his own hands.
Starring Nico Quijano as Ranger, Ron Van Clief (who was Nico's instructor in New York), JC Smith, Geno Romo, Tommy Luke, Kaylie Voechting, Rob Steacy. Nico hired a crew for Germany and a crew for the U.S. He wrote the script, raised the funds, an additional $20K plus, location scouted, got the permits, insurance, paid the actors, fed them, was the stunt coordinator, stunt driver, weapons consultant along with his veteran buddy Josh Burgess, and evengot to call cadence on the "Ranger" theme song, etc. Nico bought all of the costumes, weapons, film equipment, etc. He even edited the movie himself, because people were trying to rip him off and wanted to charge him over $75K to edit it, more than what they raised to shoot the film. So he had to learn how to edit.
Nico was able to put a lot of military veterans to work on this project, as well many people from all walks of life with diverse backgrounds. Everyone who worked on "Ranger" is family. Nico is now working on his next film projects with many of the same cast members.
He has written several books on Amazon, one on dealing with PTSD, one on the mkaing of "Ranger" and two cultural books about the fighting traditons of Puerto Rico and Cuba. A sought after master instructor, who has taught all over the world keeping these traditions alive.
