For six seasons and 120 episodes, Valente Rodriguez played Ernie Cardenas on George Lopez, the best friend and co-worker who was there from the first scene of the pilot to the last episode of the series. The show has never really gone off the air, and Ernie is the reason a whole generation recognizes him on sight.

He is a Rio Grande Valley kid who made it the hard way. Born in Edcouch and raised in the Valley as the youngest of eight, he was the first in his family to graduate high school and go to college, earning his degree at the University of Texas-Pan American, which named him a distinguished alumnus in 2006. He moved to Los Angeles in 1988 and built a career that has now run nearly four decades, with roles in Blood In Blood Out, My Family, Erin Brockovich, Volcano, The Ugly Truth, (500) Days of Summer, McFarland USA, and Instant Family.

Television has kept him just as busy, from The Golden Girls and Beverly Hills 90210 early on to Happily Divorced alongside Fran Drescher, The Mentalist, and a long recurring run as Principal Gutiérrez on Disney's High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. In 2022 he returned to the world that made him famous with an appearance on Lopez vs. Lopez.