Carrillo's most well-known achievement lies in the area of founding theatres and theatre companies. He founded the
Playbox Theatre in 1976 and in the late 1980s was the driving force for the building of the
Malthouse Theatre complex which opened in 1990. He was president of the
Myer Foundation 2004-2010 and was in 2008 Chairman of the Sidney Myer Fund, the Myer family's two philanthropic arms. Carrillo was a
Melbourne City Councillor, where he was Chairman of the Planning and the Docklands Committees and had portfolio responsibility for Cultural Development. He worked for the Australian Foreign Affairs Department as Cultural Counsellor at the
Australian Embassy in
Beijing (1985–1987). He toured many companies from China and Japan to Australia and, with writer Rodney Hall was joint artistic director of the Four Winds Festival in
Bermagui, New South Wales. Because of his long and distinguished career in the arts, arts administration and the theatre where he worked as an actor and director, Carrillo was appointed by the
Victorian state government as president of the
Victorian Arts Centre Trust from July 2000. He served three terms to 2009. The government appointed him as chairman of the
Melbourne International Arts Festival from mid-2010. He was Chairman of the
Melbourne International Comedy Festival for six years to March 2000, Chair of the Performing Arts Board and a member of the
Australia Council 1990–1993. He was a member of the Australian International Cultural Council (chaired by the Minister for Foreign Affairs) for three years until 2003. Until 2002 he served for three years as a member of the Cultural Network of the Australian National Commission for
UNESCO. He was also a member of the
Trilateral Commission. ==Television career==