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Antonio Lopez Jr [1] (born February 3, 1986), known professionally as Anttoni Lopez (sometimes capitalized as Anttoni) and as of 2015 prefers Anttoni Lopez professionally[2] is an American model, actor, dancer, and entrepreneur. Born in the Bronx, New York, Lopez attended a performing arts school in his youth he was accepted as a dancer at The Young Dancemakers Company. In 2001 at 15 years old Anttoni made the cover of the New York Times

Following his success with dancing, in 2003 Lopez got cast to play a shark in the West Side Story for Lehman college. Lopez began to branch into acting and modeling.

In 2015, Lopez began working on a cosmetics line for men called Alpha Male Cosmetics making him part of the largest beauty industry in the world. In 2017 Alpha Male cosmetics was launched and it became the first full line of makeup on the market for men with eight products. In 2020 Lopez was featured in Forbes for breaking barriers in the beauty industry.

Early life and education

Antonio Lopez Jr was born on February 3, 1986,[9][10] in Bronx New York to a Latin/Arabic/Italian-American mother and a father of Puerto Rican-American descent.[11] He is the oldest of 6 more brothers and one sister. Lopez attended P.S 129 in the Bronx from grades Pk - K then after he attended P.S 32 in the Bronx from grades 1-2. By the third grade, Lopez was attending C.S.4x in the Bronx all the way up until the eighth grade where he graduated[12] Although he wanted to become an entertainer since the age of seven, he only began pursuing the profession at the age of 10. Lopez got accepted to Talented Unlimted High school of performing arts.

Career

Lopez started performing at the age of eight. he started dancing at the after-school program where he and his siblings attended after school. He quickly fell in love with dancing. Lopez became the only guy in the dance program and opened the door for more guys to feel confident and comfortable in the art of dance and express themselves through movement. By the age of 15, Lopez was invited to join the Young dance makers company and decided to pursue musical theater. By the age of 16, he came out of the closet as a gay male to his parents. He always felt like he was different and wanted to make sure he didn't live his life as a lie. He soon began background dancing for drag queens in New York City nightclubs. One drag queen who turned actress was named Tyra allure, who goes by the name Dominique Jackson she always pushed him to do better and never give up on his dreams.

Lopez was scouted as a model while performing at a nightclub. Chase models helped Lopez start to build a modeling portfolio. He quickly began to book shows for NYC fashion week for Boss and the Estrada twins who premiered on Project runway. By the age of 19, Lopez auditioned for multi-selling platinum girl group Destiny's Child for their last and final tour Destiny Fulfilled. He made the top 50 guys selected out of 500 guys who auditioned to come back for a final audition, He did not make the tour, but it gave him so much confidence to want to do more.