Manuel Criado was born at Langley Air Force base near Hampton, Virginia. His father was in the Air Force, and so he moved around often as a child. He lived in Germany, Hawaii and San Angelo, Texas as a child. Mr. Criado graduated from San Angelo Central High School in 1987, and immediately joined the army and he was stationed at Kunia Field Station in Hawaii from 1988 to 1992. He served during the first gulf war, but was never sent overseas to Iraq. After he was discharged honorably from the army in 1992, he moved to Austin and attended the University of Texas at Austin and graduated with a government degree in 1995. Mr. Criado then moved to Denver, CO and attended the University of Denver College of Law and graduated in 1998. 

His last semester of law school was as a visiting student in San Francisco, where he met an array of technology entrepreneurs building companies during the first Internet wave of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. He spent about three years working for a software consulting company doing business development. When the economy tanked in 2001, he moved back to Austin, took the Texas Bar Exam, got his license and started practicing law. His first job was at a Worker’s Compensation firm in San Antonio where he was helping Injured workers pursue workers compensation claims. After a year, he started his own firm, The Criado Law Group. Since 2002, Mr. Criado has been helping injured workers pursue personal injury claims in Austin, TX. 

He has been happily married for five years, and he has a one-year-old daughter. He currently lives in San Antonio Texas. He maintains an office in Austin.