Santiago Cabrera

Santiago Cabrera

Santiago Cabrera in March 2008
Born 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 roles as the character Isaac Mendez in the television series Heroes and as Lancelot in the BBC drama series Merlin. He currently stars as Aramis in the BBC series The Musketeers. He was brought up in several countries including England, and he currently resides in London.

Early life

The middle child of a Chilean diplomat father and 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, Three Birds Alighting on a Field, 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 played 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 20 January 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 favourite team however he remains a fan of Queens Park Rangers F.C. and was a mascot for the club as a child.[2] Although he considers Santiago, Chile, his hometown, he splits his time between London and Los Angeles.[3]

On 7 September 2008, Cabrera participated in Soccer Aid, a British charity football match in support of UNICEF. He later repeated this venture in 2014, playing once again for the Rest of the World.

Cabrera is married to Anna Marcea, a theatre director.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
2003 Spooks Camilo Henriquez Series 2 episode 9
2003 Judge John Deed Carlos Fedor Series 3 episode 3 "Conspiracy"
2004 Haven Gene Feature film
2004 TOCA Race Driver 2 Cesar Maques Video game (voice role)
2005 Empire Octavius Mini-series (main role)
2005 ShakespeaRe-Told: The Taming of the Shrew Lucentio
2006 Love and Other Disasters Paolo Sarmiento Feature Film
2006–
2007, 2009
Heroes Isaac Mendez Main cast in season 1
Season 4 episode 8 "Once Upon a Time in Texas"
2008 Heroes Unmasked Narrator Series 3
2008 Che Camilo Cienfuegos Feature film
2008–2011 Merlin Lancelot Series 1 episode 5 "Lancelot"
Series 2 (2009) episode 4 "Lancelot and Guinevere"
Series 3 (2010) episode 13 "The Coming of Arthur (Part 2)"
Series 4 (2011) episode 1 "The Darkest Hour – Part 1", episode 2 "The Darkest Hour – Part 2", episode 9 "Lancelot Du Lac"
2010 La vida de los peces Andres Feature film
2011 Covert Affairs Xavier Season 2 episode 11 The Wake-Up Bomb
2011 Alcatraz[4] Jimmy
2012 For Greater Glory Father Vega Feature Film
2012 Hemingway & Gellhorn Robert Capa TV-Film
2012 Dexter Sal Price TV-series
2012 Falcón Judge Esteban Calderón TV series
2012–2013 Anna Karenina Vronsky Mini series
2014 – present The Musketeers Aramis TV series

Awards

Wins

Nominations

References

  1. "Merlin's Secrets Revealed". bbc.co.uk. 23 July 2008. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
  2. Heroes star and QPR fan Santiago Cabrera on YouTube
  3. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1085051/
  4. "Santiago Cabrera Enters Abrams' Alcatraz". BSCreview. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2011.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Santiago Cabrera.