filming
SVU Pino is known for his performance as the
Mexican drug lord Armadillo Quintero on
FX's
The Shield. He has also appeared in the films
The Lost City (2005) and
Flicka (2006), which featured
Tim McGraw, and starred in the hit CBS series
Cold Case as
Detective Scotty Valens. In 2011, Pino joined the cast of
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for its 13th season, along with
Chase actress
Kelli Giddish, coinciding with
Christopher Meloni's departure. On
SVU, Pino portrayed
NYPD Detective Nick Amaro, a detective transferring from the narcotics squad to the Special Victims Unit. Pino wrote two episodes of
Cold Case: "Stealing Home" and "Metamorphosis". Starting in 2005, he has been in six
CBS Cares public service announcements, with other stars of
CBS original programs. He has made single appearances on
The Sharon Osbourne Show in 2004,
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in 2005,
The Drop in 2005,
Entertainment Tonight in 2008, and
The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2011. In 2016, he played Alex Vargas in
Scandal and Democratic Senator Luke Healy in
BrainDead. He currently co-stars in FX's
Sons of Anarchy spinoff series
Mayans M.C., as cartel leader Miguel Galindo. In August 2020, he joined the cast of
Stephen Chbosky's
film adaptation of the broadway musical
Dear Evan Hansen as Larry Murphy, a role that was re-conceived for the film from "father" to "stepfather," with the character renamed as Larry Mora. ==Personal life==