Carlo Rota

Carlo Rota is an English-born Italian-Canadian actor, best known to Canadian audiences for his role on "Little Mosque on the Prairie" and to international audiences for starring on the FOX series "24." He also has a co-starring role as Emilio Solano in "Jane the Virgin."

Rota landed roles in the Canadian TV series Street Legal and the critically acclaimed Canadian independent film "Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould." Because of his experience prior to acting, he also hosted the "Great Canadian Food Show" for CBC television in Canada, a series which was nominated for the prestigious James Beard Award for Excellence in Culinary Journalism.

He has appeared in numerous popular TV series including "24," "Queer as Folk," "Castle," "La Femme Nikita," "Relic Hunter," "Adventure Inc," "A Nero Wolfe Mystery," "The Gospel of John and Traders." Rota co-starred in the CBC sitcom "Little Mosque on the Prairie," playing Lebanese-Canadian construction contractor Yasir Hamoudi. Rota also played a journalist for The Herald in the horror flick, "Saw V."

On "24," Rota portrayed the recurring role of Morris O'Brian, the arrogant but brilliant computer scientist husband of Chloe O'Brian. He appeared in a few episodes of seasons 5 and 7 but appeared for the entire length of season 6.

Rota had a recurring role on the TV series "La Femme Nikita" as the smarmy, green-listed terrorist informant, Mick Schtoppel; later revealed to be Mr. Jones, a high-ranking member of Section. In the 1999 movie "The Boondock Saints," Rota starred as crime boss Giuseppe "Papa Joe" Yakavetta. He also played movie director Tyler Jesseman in the 2000 Disney Channel Original Movie "Phantom of the Megaplex."

He has made guest appearances in many other television series, including "Stargate Universe," playing Carl Strom, head of the International Oversight Advisory, the civilian oversight committee that heads up the Atlantis expedition and its funding., as a villain named The Ghost on "White Collar," as well as roles on "CSI: NY," "Human Target," "Castle," "The Mentalist," "Bones," and "Grimm." He also appeared on "NCIS: Los Angeles" in the episode "Found" as Kalil Abramson, as well as on AMC's show, "Breaking Bad." He was a guest on episode 11 of the second season of "Top Chef Canada," the episode dedicated to Italian cuisine.

In 2013, he was announced as the new host of "Recipe to Riches," a Canadian reality show.

He provided the voice and motion-capture performance for Majid Sadiq, leader of The Engineers and the main antagonist in Tom Clancy's "Splinter Cell: Blacklist."

In 2014, he recurred as Ivan on the hit ABC television show "Scandal."

In 2014, he began co-starring in "Jane the Virgin" as Emilio Solano.