Julio Torres

Julio Torres – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Explore the life and creative journey of Julio Torres (born February 11, 1987) — Salvadoran-American writer, comedian, and filmmaker. From SNL sketches to his surrealist film Problemista, learn his influences, style, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

Julio Torres (born February 11, 1987) is a Salvadoran-American writer, comedian, actor, and director known for his distinctively surreal and visual style of comedy.

He first gained recognition as a writer on Saturday Night Live (SNL), then co-created the HBO series Los Espookys and Fantasmas (both of which have earned Peabody Awards).

In 2024, he made his feature directorial debut with Problemista, a surreal comedy about an immigrant in New York.

In this article, we trace his early life, creative path, signature style, major works, legacy, and a selection of his most resonant quotes.

Early Life and Background

• Julio Torres was born on February 11, 1987, in San Salvador, El Salvador.

• His father is a civil engineer, and his mother is an architect and fashion designer.

• He spent his early years in San Salvador during the late stages of the Salvadoran Civil War, an experience he has said left impressions of tension and observation.

• He grew up in an apartment above his mother’s clothing store; as a child, he was drawn to creating stories, customizing toys, and imagining worlds for inanimate objects.

• After his mother’s store went out of business, his family relocated to a farmhouse outside the city.

Torres often credits his mother’s design sensibility and hands-on creativity in shaping his aesthetic awareness.

Education

• He attended a private high school in his home country via scholarship.

• After high school, he enrolled in a two-year advertising program and briefly worked at an advertising agency.

• He then moved to New York to attend The New School (Eugene Lang College) and majored in English Literature (with interests in playwriting). He graduated around 2011.

Career & Major Works

Julio Torres’s career trajectory is marked by a steady rising through writing, experimental comedy, and eventually directing.

Early Writing & Sketch Comedy

• His first known writing work was for The Chris Gethard Show (truTV).

• In 2016, he joined the SNL writing staff, contributing to various sketches including “Papyrus” and “Wells for Boys.”

• At SNL, his imaginative and offbeat style stood out, pushing boundaries on what “sketch” comedy could look like.

My Favorite Shapes & Stand-Up

• In 2019, he released his HBO special My Favorite Shapes, in which he sits at a conveyor belt describing the inner lives of objects — blending whimsy, metaphor, and absurdity.

• This special further solidified his reputation as a comedian who sees the world differently, focusing on overlooked details and granting poetic weight to the mundane.

Los Espookys, Fantasmas, & Television

• Julio co-created, wrote, and served as executive producer of Los Espookys, a Spanish-language horror comedy series for HBO. He also acts in the show as Andreas.

• He also worked on Fantasmas, another HBO show combining surrealism and supernatural themes, which earned acclaim.

Both Los Espookys and Fantasmas have been honored with Peabody Awards.

Problemista and Filmmaking

• In 2023, Torres wrote, directed, and starred in Problemista, released in the U.S. by A24. The film centers on a Salvadoran creative struggling to navigate taxation, immigration, and identity in New York.

• Problemista represents his move into feature filmmaking — bringing his dreamlike style to narrative cinema.

Other Projects & Works

• He also has appeared as an actor or voice actor in various projects, including Together Together (2021).

• He published a children’s book, I Want to Be a Vase, in which a plunger aspires to be a vase — a poetic fable about identity and transformation.

Style, Themes & Artistic Approach

Julio Torres’s work is often described as surreal, object-oriented, visionary, and emotionally resonant.

Some signature elements:

• Personification of objects / shapes: He gives personality and emotional life to inanimate items. (e.g. My Favorite Shapes)

• Visual precision & aesthetic care: His background in design and interest in form and space carry through in set, color, and presentation.

• Whimsical yet poignant tone: Even in surreal flights, there’s a trace of melancholy, longing, or existential observation.

• Minimalism & quiet delivery: He often uses low, calm voice, letting absurdity and visuals speak more than overt jokes.

• Immigrant / outsider perspective: Many of his works (especially Problemista) engage with immigration, systemic friction, alienation, and the artist’s precarious space.

He often resists being boxed into labels of identity (immigrant, gay, Hispanic) and prefers to speak from personal truth rather than as representative.

Legacy and Influence

Although Julio Torres is still in a mid-career phase, his influence is already evident:

• Redefining comedy boundaries: He shows that comedy can be poetic, visual, and slow rather than fast punchlines.

• Crossing media: He moves among stand-up, sketch, television, film, and books — each informing the other.

• Inspiring new creators: His aesthetic, unconventional sensibility encourages others to trust singular voices over formula.

• Recognition by peers & institutions: Peabody Awards for his TV work, acclaim for Problemista, and features in media mark his rising stature.

He is a figure many emerging comedy writers and filmmakers point to as someone who made space for the weird, the gentle, and the strange.

Famous Quotes by Julio Torres

Here is a selection of insightful and characteristic quotes by Julio Torres:

“I love the color clear.”

“I feel like I'm constantly tangled in some kind of bureaucratic web and constantly making the tangible philosophical.”

“The idea of artist as persona is something that I'm attracted to, so obviously Klaus Nomi is the leader of it.”

“I do like toilets as concepts. Being a toilet is a job that's inherently demeaning, so humanising that is exciting to me.”

“I had been raised on a certain kind of New York movie. … Then when I first came here, I was just like, 'Oh, there's just garbage everywhere.'”

“When I started doing stand-up … I did what I believed standup should look like.”

“My mom is an architect by trade … she’s always making something, whether it’s furniture or clothes … that’s the kind of creator that I am.”

“Surrealistic flourishes are a different way of accessing the truth, of accessing real emotion.”

These quotes reflect his introspective, aesthetic, and imaginative lens on the world.

Lessons from Julio Torres

1. Let the unusual guide you
   Torres shows that embracing one’s oddities can be a creative strength rather than a liability.

2. See the poetic in the mundane
   By giving life to objects, shapes, or details, he teaches us to look more deeply at what we ignore.

3. Be cross-disciplinary
   His movement across media (TV, film, writing, stand-up) demonstrates that constraints are self-imposed.

4. Speak from personal truth, not labels
   He resists being a “representative voice,” instead using his own perspective to invite resonance.

5. Use visual and emotional logic, not only verbal logic
   His work prioritizes mood, space, and image as much as punchlines or narrative.

Conclusion

Julio Torres is a singular mind in contemporary comedy and storytelling. From a boy in San Salvador who played with toy architecture to a creator of weird, dreamy worlds, he has built a body of work that challenges, delights, and lingers.

His journey from SNL rooms to directing Problemista exemplifies how one can expand boundaries while staying true to one’s aesthetic core. If you like, I can also prepare a timeline of his works or a video montage of his most visually striking sketches. Want me to do that?