José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal is an American actor of Chilean origin.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on April 2, 1975 in Santiago, Chile. He grew up in the United States of America (USA) – first in Orange County, California, and later in San Antonio, Texas.
As a child, he went in for swimming and even competed at the state level.
He received his acting education at the Orange County School of the Arts and the prestigious Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
Career
Movies and TV shows
He began his career as a film actor with roles in popular television series, including “Buffy the Vampire Winner”, “The Good Wife”, “Homeland”, “The Mentalist” and “Graceland”. He also appeared in the episode “Weeping Willow” of Law Order: Criminal Intent.
He gained wide popularity after the role of Oberyn Martell in the fourth season of Game of Thrones. According to Pascal, he was a longtime fan of the series even before participating in the project, so he accepted the invitation to join the cast without hesitation.
In 2015, he played one of the main roles in the series “Narco” – agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration Javier Peña. In the same year, he starred in the film “Blood-sucking scum”, where he played a vampire named Max.
In April of the same year, he starred with Heidi Klum in the music video of Australian singer Sia for the song “Fire Meet Gasoline”.
In 2017, Pascal appeared in two large-scale films: in the action movie “Kingsman: The Golden Ring” he played the role of Agent Whiskey, and in the historical fantasy “The Great Wall” he played the mercenary Pero Tovar. The very next year he played the main antagonist – Dave York – in the thriller “The Righteous 2”.
Since 2019, Pascal has been playing the main role in the series “The Mandalorian” – the first television project in the Star Wars universe. In particular, he played Francisco “Soma” Morales in the crime drama “Triple Border”, and later – the antagonist Maxwell Lord in the film “Wonder Woman 1984”.
In February 2021, he joined the cast of Judd Apatow’s film Bubble, a satirical comedy about filming a film during the pandemic.
In the same year, he starred with Nicolas Cage in the film “The Unbearable Heaviness of Immense Talent”, a meta-comedy in which Cage plays himself. At the same time, he received the main role of Joel Miller in the television adaptation of the game “The Last of Us” for the HBO channel.
In November 2022, the actor was approved for a role in the film “Bizarre Tales” directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.
A year later, he joined the cast of Ethan Coen’s film “Beauties on the Run”. Already in May, it became known about his participation in the continuation of the film “Gladiator”.
Theatre
In addition to film and television, Pascal has experience in theater – as an actor as well as a director. For his role in the play “Orphans” of the International City Theater, he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and the Garland Award. His stage repertoire includes both classical and modern plays.
While working at the “off-Broadway” theater, Pascal played in a number of productions, including “The Maple and the Vine”, “Father’s Beauty”, “Based on an Absolutely True Story” by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, “The Sand”, “The Old Comedy” and “Some Men”.
In 2006, he played in “Macbeth” at the Central Park Open Theater in New York.
Pascal and Ukraine
On February 28, 2025, Pedro Pascal posted a story in support of Ukraine on Instagram, accompanied by the words: “Courage has a name – Ukraine.”
He also expressed support for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his dispute with White House President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
