With the popular television show “Breaking Bad” coming to a close, one of its actors is setting his sights on politics in his hometown.
Steven Michael Quezada, who plays DEA Agent Steven Gomez, is running for Albuquerque School Board after filming wraps in March,
CNN reports.
“Just because I’m an actor doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be involved in my community,” Quezada, 49, said in an interview. “I think that it’s something that I need to do and something that’s calling to me.”
As of now, the actor is running unopposed to represent a new district in the city’s West Side, ABC News reports. As a school board member, he wants to make class sizes smaller, build more charter schools, and promote the arts to students.
Quezada added that he has been working with Youth Development, Inc. in New Mexico since 1987 in its gang intervention program. With three children in Albuquerque public charter schools, the actor told CNN “my concern for education in New Mexico has always been there.”
“I’m one of those kids that struggled through school and I feel that I sort of fell through the cracks,” he said of his own educational experience in his hometown.
For now, school board is the only political run he plans on making, and with many movies and television series coming to New Mexico he hopes to continue acting. “Breaking Bad,” for one, was set and filmed in the city.
Monica Armenta, the executive director of communications for Albuquerque Public Schools, told ABC News, “Whenever you have someone that high profiled really interested in learning about education, it’s great.”
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.