Cervantes was born in Corona, California, USA and attended the Corona Senior High School and the Cerittos Community College where he graduated with a BA in Industrial Plastics. His first film set he ever visited was the set of the science fiction film Logan's Run in 1976. His first credit, as "Ernie Cervantes", was for his work on the science fiction comedy Real Genius in 1985 on which he worked with Syd Dutton, David Stipes, and Bill Taylor. Other film and television work includes the fantasy adventure Masters of the Universe (1987, starring Frank Langella, Meg Foster, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Anthony DeLongis), the fantasy comedy Beetle Juice (1988), the television series Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future (1987-1988), Babylon 5, SeaQuest DSV, and Earth 2, the science fiction