Santiago Cabrera

Santiago Cabrera
Santiago Cabrera in March 2008
Born	(1978-05-05) 5 May 1978 Caracas, Venezuela
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2003–present

Santiago Cabrera (born 5 May 1978) is a Venezuelan-born Chilean British actor, most known for his role as the character Isaac Mendez in the television series Heroes and as Lancelot in the BBC drama series Merlin. He was brought up in several countries including London, England, where he currently resides.

Early life

The middle child of a Chilean diplomat father and homemaker mother, Cabrera was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Santiago grew up mainly in England, but also Romania, Toronto and Madrid. His family returned to Chile when he was fifteen years old and as a captain of the football team in high school, Cabrera focused on athletics before switching gears; he headed towards acting when his high school drama teacher encouraged him to try it. During his three years of training at the Drama Centre London, Cabrera honed his acting skills in productions of The Madras House, A Month in the Country, Napoli Milionaria, Britannicus, The Dutch Courtesan, The Strangeness of Others, A Field, Three Birds Alighting On, and played the title character in The Last Days of Don Juan.

Concurrent with his final year at the Centre, he made his television debut with small roles in the British television series Battlefield Britain, Judge John Deed, Spooks and As If. His first role after graduating from drama school was Montano in Shakespeare's Othello, at the Northampton Theatre Royal. He has also starred in the 2006 film Love and Other Disasters as the Argentinian Paolo Sarmiento, alongside Brittany Murphy and Matthew Rhys.

He has appeared on American television in Empire (where he portrays Octavius, Julius Caesar's teenage nephew, whom Caesar named as his successor before his death). Most notably, he is known for his role as Isaac Mendez in the NBC series Heroes. Once the character's arc ended, he narrated some episodes of the BBC's spin-off documentary series Heroes Unmasked. He also plays Lancelot in the BBC drama series Merlin.^[1]

In addition to his fluency in Spanish, English, French and Italian, Cabrera is skilled in tennis, hockey and scuba diving. On the January 20, 2007 episode of the NBC late-night program Vivo Mun2, Cabrera discussed his semi-professional football career in London before he fully committed to acting. He also stated that C.D. Universidad Católica of Santiago is his favorite team. Although he considers Santiago, Chile, his hometown, he splits his time between London and Los Angeles.^[2]

On 7 September 2008, Cabrera participated in Soccer Aid, a British charity football match in support of UNICEF.

Cabrera is married to Anna Marcea, a theatre director.

Filmography

Awards

Wins

2007, Future Classic Award, for Heroes

2011, Best Actor for La Vida de Los Peces

Nominations

2007, ALMA Award, Outstanding Actor – Television Series, Mini-Series or Television Movie, for Heroes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Santiago Cabrera.

• Santiago Cabrera at the Internet Movie Database
• Santiago Cabrera in TV Guide