Ortiz was born and raised in New York City, where he had a keen interest in card tricks since childhood.
During that time, he initially supported himself playing blackjack (using card counting techniques) and as an instructor at Harry Lorayne's memory school in New York City.
Ortiz was a contemporary and close friend of the influential US coin magician, David Roth, and was initially mentored by the seminal British/US close-up performer, Derek Dingle.
Ortiz later became a consultant to a number of casinos in the United States, Europe, Africa, UK and Australasia, and was a regular featured presenter for a succession of years at the World Gaming Congress in Nevada.
The last book published with Darwin Ortiz's original routines was Lessons in Card Mastery.