Hector Garcia

Hector works for the AT&T Performing Arts Center as Director of Strategic Services where he has the pleasure of connecting with, and providing services to, the Dallas arts community, in particular to the small and mid-sized arts organizations. In this capacity, he also administers the process of receiving and reviewing grant applications, and distributing funds for the Moody Fund for the Arts. Since its inception 5 years ago, he has overseen distribution of 238 grants to 79 organizations for a total of $1,580,000. Hector is also a fulltime actor represented by the Kim Dawson Talent Agency. He works in TV and radio commercials, episodic TV, voiceovers, corporate/educational projects, new media, print, stage and film. He is a proud member of both Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA, where he is a longtime member of the DFW Local Board and is now the elected national board member representing members in the northern half of Texas, all of Oklahoma and Arkansas. He serves on the SAG-AFTRA National Executive Committee, as well as several other national committees, seeking to improve wages, benefits, safety, conditions, and equity for the 167,000+ members worldwide. Hector began lobbying for film incentives in Texas in 1999 as an individual, ultimately assisting in the creation of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance (TXMPA, now called Texas Media Production Alliance), where he served as its first President (2006) and led the creative industries to successfully pass, in the 2007 Texas Legislative Session, the Texas Moving Images Incentive Program (TMIIP), administered by the Governor’s Texas Film Commission. The initial $55 million rose to $75 million in 2009 and $95 million in 2011. While the successful program still continues, Hector has stepped back from leadership and continues as an enthusiastic member and its “institutional memory.” As an active member of the Dallas community, he served 8 years on the City of Dallas Planning and Zoning Commission (6 years as the Chair appointed by then Mayor Ron Kirk), and previously served as Vice-Chair of the Human Services Committee. He has been active on several nonprofit boards, primarily in the areas of food equity and equal rights. He previously spent many years as a restaurateur. Hector was born in Havana, Cuba, grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in Illinois, and moved to Dallas to study acting at Southern Methodist University for a year, where he also worked on the staff. He and his husband of almost 35 years, former City Councilmember Craig Holcomb, are active members of First United Methodist Church in downtown Dallas, live in the historic building South Side on Lamar in The Cedars neighborhood, with Brick, the Aussiedoodle, and Grace, the American Shorthaired Silver Tabby, and they enjoy films – actually viewed on the big screen – wine and food, the performing arts, Formula 1 racing, and shopping for treasures at estate sales of little old ladies in East Dallas.