Want to catch up? He has also directed the 2017 drama film The Show. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. The actor who strikes fear into the hearts of strangersonce, a Breaking Bad fan tried to yield him her place in the bathroom linewould seem to have little in common with the exuberant, demonstrative man who approaches his profession with such joy and humility. 62 Vincent Esposito Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images CREATIVE Collections Project #ShowUs Creative Insights EDITORIAL VIDEO BBC Motion Gallery NBC News Archives MUSIC BLOG BROWSE PRICING ENTERPRISE VisualGPS INSIGHTS BOARDS CART SIGN IN Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO Then they werent bad decisions, Gus replies. His mother played an active role in Giancarlos dramatic training. In 1998, he was cast as FBI agent Mike Giardello in the final season of NBCs critically acclaimed police procedural drama series Homicide: Life on the Street. Esposito played Robert Fuentes, a Miami businessman with shady connections, on the UPN television series South Beach. . Giancarlo has dated - Joy McManigal (1994-2015) - Giancarlo began dating Joy McManigal in 1994 and they got married in 1995. Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (Italian:[dakarlo duzppe alessandro espzito]; born April 26, 1958) is an American actor. Esposito says that it was leaving the stage and hearing the sound of the audiences applause that ignited his passion:- I came offstage and heard the applause of the theater audience and felt a sense of accomplishment the actor has revealed. I am Ghanaian. For many years, painting was his main creative outlet, and in the early two-thousands painting the world as a director promised an escape from the doldrums. During the 1980s, Giancarlo spent less time singing and dancing and doing more dramatic roles. Now a regular in the TV show Revolution, Giancarlo Esposito continues to be a versatile and in-demand actor, and despite his attempt to avoid bad guy roles, he's just too good at it. Giancarlo, as Julio, sings in the Broadway musical Seesaw, 1973. In 2016 Esposito made an appearance on the Netflix original series The Get Down, produced by rapper Nas. Fyfe is the son of the former Yolanda . All I wanted was to study his blood, Gideon tells Mando (Pedro Pascal), the masked hero, in a climactic rescue sequence; menacing the gurgling green infant with an energy blade, Esposito achieves a degree of campy malevolence not seen since silent-movie villains tied damsels to train tracks. And I realized, 'Oh, okay, this is an opportunity.' While the star has since portrayed intimidating figures in The Mandalorian, The Boys . It was during this period that he met Spike Lee and later starred in Lees School Daze becoming a household name for the character Buggin Out in Do The Right Thing. Giancarlo Esposito Biography Birth Name: Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Birth Place: Copenhagen, Denmark Profession Actor, producer, director Fast Facts Is half African-American, half Italian. Giancarlo Esposito got his start as an actor on stage. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for GIANCARLO ESPOSITO SIGNED BOX CUTTER BREAKING BAD GUS FRINGE AUTOGRAPH BECKETT at the best online prices at eBay! Throughout the 1970s he starred mostly in musicals, including The Me Nobody Knows, Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, and Michael Bennett's Seesaw. His parents, working in Europe at the time of his birth, settled in Manhattan by the time he was 6, and that's where he grew up.Coming from a theatrical background, it was, perhaps, inevitable that young Giancarlo would appear on stage sooner or later, and he did, at age 8, appearing on Broadway as a slave child in "Maggie Flynn" in 1966.More Broadway work followed through the 1960s and early '70s, followed by some small roles in movies. If you're unfortunate enough to be transfixed by Fring's dead, implacable stare, now forever engrained in the collective memory of millions of viewers, you know he is displeased. Who told you to be in my neighborhood? Giancarlo Esposito Ethnicity And Nationality Esposito is a socially different individual, for the most part because of his heritage. Giancarlo, Jeff Perry, and Brian Tarantina in the Off-Broadway show Balm in Gilead, 1984. And I said, I just need to be touched. Esposito channelled that feeling in the last season of Better Call Saul, for which he won a Critics Choice Award. In 1970, he was hired as a voice actor in the short film Et Salammbo? This was his first job in the industry. It was Lee who first gave full expression to Esposito's aptitude for lawful evil. If it's anything Shawshank Redemption, Seinfeld, or Kevin Bacon game related he's way more interested. The 1988 musical comedy-drama, which also starred Laurence Fishburne and Tisha Campbell-Martin, gave a snapshot of the relationships and racial tensions in one of the nations historically black colleges. Giancarlo Esposito, who considers himself "an Italian black" that can also pass for Latino, encountered racism early on in his life and more subtler shades of prejudice while auditioning. He is famous for portraying the role of Gus Firing in the AMC drama series called ' Breaking Bad .'. Worried that his acting ambitions would fail to deliver the goods, he made sure to have the education to fall back on. He escorts a captured Danny to the capital Philadelphia of the Monroe Republic.[11]. Siblings - Vincent Esposito (Older Brother) Build. He borrowed money from his eighth-grade teacher, who predicted that, with four children to support, he would likely never recover from the collapse. But when he later watched Espositos previous performances, he was determined to get him for this iconic role. It seemed appropriate that wed spent most of the afternoon in an exhibition devoted to the German-Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim, whose own varied career is often reduced to a single fur-covered teacup. Kris Connor/Getty. His stage career began when he was a child when he appeared opposite Shirley Jones as an orphan in the 1968 Broadway production of Maggie Flynn. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing more the $966 million worldwide to become the 42nd highest-grossing film of all time. His father, an Italian stage carpenter, and his mother, an African American opera singer, met while working in Italy. Esposito has portrayed drug dealers (Fresh, Breaking Bad, King of New York, Better Call Saul), policemen (The Usual Suspects, Derailed), political radicals (Bob Roberts, Do the Right Thing), and a demonic version of the Greek God of Sleep Hypnos from another dimension (Monkeybone). However, the couple has since parted ways. . We hugged each other for at least twenty minutes, Esposito said. Fans who cant get enough of the actors famously dulcet tones will be pleased to know Esposito has been known to put in the occasional appearance as a guest speaker. Vincent and Giancarlo Esposito during their debut on Broadway in the musical Maggie Flynn, 1968. During the 1990s, Esposito appeared in the acclaimed indie films Night on Earth, Fresh and Smoke, as well as its sequel Blue in the Face. During this period, he met Spike Lee who wanted to cast him in the unrealized film Messenger. They soon married, and Giancarlo was born in 1958, in Copenhagen, where Elizabeth was performing in a split bill with Josephine Baker. . The family eventually settled down in Elmsford, New York, and Giancarlo had his Broadway dbut when he was only ten years old, playing an orphaned fugitive from slavery in the Civil War-era musical Maggie Flynn. I learned how to tap dance from Michael Bennett and Anita Morris and Tommy Tune in Seesaw without ever taking a lesson, Esposito told me. He has joined the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series. [12] Esposito has additionally appeared in a video of the action role-playing sci-fi first-person shooter game Destiny, as well as plays The Dentist, a non-playable story character, in the game Payday 2. Over the course of his career, he has appeared in films like Fresh, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, The Usual Suspects, and King of New York. By day, Gus owns and operates a fast-food chain, Los Pollos Hermanos, where, all smiles and pious platitudes, he works shifts alongside his staff and caters charity events for the Albuquerque police department. Espositos film career began in 1979 when he played a Puerto Rican teenager in the film Running. He was in Toronto, travelling with his mother, when she realized that her old acquaintance was performing at their hotel. That role drew from both his African American and Italian ancestry. Did I just miss the Calder mobiles? he wondered; weaving through the midday crowds, he pivoted smoothly between selfie requests, my questions, and his own bursts of curiosity. Esposito walked right past it, beelining to a series of celestial multimedia paintings whose textures he found enchanting. Giancarlo Esposito exchanged wedding vows with Joy McManigal in 1995. He won the Drama Desk Award for the play Balm in Gilead (1985). Photo: Newsday. Between 1993 and 1994, he portrayed Det. He also had a recurring role in the first season of The Get Down on Netflix. Also Known As: Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito, Spouse/Ex-: Joy McManigal (m. 19952015), Joy McManigal (m. 19952015), children: Kale Lyn Esposito, Ruby Esposito, Shayne Lyra Esposito, Syrlucia Esposito, See the events in life of Giancarlo Esposito in Chronological Order, (Actor and Director Best Known for His TV Series: Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Giancarlo_Esposito#/media/File:Giancarlo_Esposito_2012_cropped.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Giancarlo_Esposito#/media/File:Giancarlo_Esposito_(43555569182).jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Giancarlo_Esposito#/media/File:Giancarlo_Esposito_-_Monte-Carlo_Television_Festival.jpg. A formative rejection kept him on the right side of the lens. [10] Esposito appeared in Revolution as Major Tom Neville, a central character who kills Ben Matheson in the pilot. This month, Esposito returns to Disney+ on the popular Star Wars series The Mandalorian, playing Moff Gideon, a cape-swirling insurrectionist in a remnant of the Galactic Empire. Giancarlo Esposito had two special cameo appearances in Community, adding to the connection between the comedy series and AMC's Breaking Bad.The actor, who was best known for playing villain Gus Fring in Breaking Bad at the time, starred in two episodes of the series created by Dan Harmon.Community debuted in 2009 and ran for five seasons on NBC before it was cancelled on the network due to . He is also known for his appearances in several Spike Lee films, such as School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), and Malcolm X (1992). And it's kept going like that."[5]. Family time: He turned the star-studded event into a . Moreover, he has devoted much of his personal time to countering the problem of racial stereotyping and enjoys roles that explore minority and immigrant issues. His mother was an opera diva. Sometimes we fucking lose., The show that freed Esposito from purgatory was Breaking Bad (2008-13). Who told you to buy a brownstone on my block, in my neighborhood, on my side of the street? he challenges a white Brooklyniteand Espositos antic performance stood out, even in a film teeming with talent. [14] Esposito and Favreau would work together once again in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian in which Esposito appears in a starring role, while Favreau acts as an executive producer for the series and as its writer. Since its inception in 1969, multiple stars have lent their talents to the production, including Amy Adams, Alec Baldwin, Garth Brooks, Cher, and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan. He also appeared in the first season of the ABC program Once Upon a Time, which debuted in October 2011. In 1979, he had his big screen debut in the sports drama Running. Esposito also voices Antn Castillo, the main antagonist of the video game Far Cry 6, who was modeled after Esposito's appearance. I scrapped everything for a few weeks and said, figure out how to be with yourself outside of the world, outside of people handing me my validation.. 108-Year-Old American Woman And Her 101-Year-Old Brother To Naturalise And Become Ghanaian Citizens. Giancarlo and his more established sibling Vincent appeared on Broadway in 1968 in the melodic Maggie Flynn with Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy. The young Esposito didnt just admire Lancaster for his acting chops, however: during the 1950s, Lancaster made a series of widely acclaimed films (including Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and Separate Tables (1958) with his production company Hect-Hill-Lancaster, proving himself to be just as much a success behind the camera as in front of it. Other notable actors whove lent their voices to the series include Rosario Dawson, Rainn Wilson, Christian Slater, and Jennifer Hale. He acted alongside Nicole Kidman in the 2010 film Rabbit Hole. Esposito has won much critical acclaim over the course of his career, but perhaps the greatest accolade came on April 26, 2014, when he was awarded the 2,523rd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He played jazz with the Marsalis brothers. In 1996, Esposito was featured in a music video "California" by French superstar Mylne Farmer, directed by Abel Ferrara. Actor: Breaking Bad. From 1971 to 1977, he served as a young singer on PBS children show The Electric Company. Esposito's other television roles include Federal Agent Mike Giardello in the NBC police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street (19981999), Sidney Glass / Magic Mirror in the ABC supernatural drama series Once Upon a Time (20112017), Tom Neville in the NBC science-fiction series Revolution (20122014), Dr. Edward Ruskins in the Netflix comedy-drama series Dear White People (20172021), Stan Edgar in the Amazon Prime Video superhero drama series The Boys (2019present) and The Boys Presents: Diabolical (2022present), and Moff Gideon in the Disney+ space western drama series The Mandalorian (2019present), the lattermost of which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. I find its healing for me, he said. His mother, Elizabeth (Leesa) Foster, was an opera singer from Alabama who was touring Europe when she fell in love with a Neapolitan stagehand. It was really a great opening for me to show who I really was. So you can Watusi your monkey ass back to AF-RI-CA if you want to!, He dialled it up in Do the Right Thing, as Buggin Out, a fast-talking hothead who precipitates the climactic attack on Sals Pizzeria. In 1982, the actor took on the role of Mickey, Big Birds camp counselor, in 4 episodes of everyones favorite kids TV show, Sesame Street. In 2008, he made his directorial debut with Gospel Hill, serving also as producer and star of the film. As a result, he can now boast a two-year degree in radio and television from the Elizabeth Seton College in Yonkers, New York. From 2009 to 2011, Esposito appeared in seasons 2 through 4 of the AMC drama Breaking Bad, as Gus Fring, the head of a New Mexico-based methamphetamine drug ring. . Beyond movies, Esposito goes to college campuses and prisons as part of a motivational speaking circuit talking about racism, color-blind casting, and human empowerment. Now, this is Josephine Baker, in a black sequined dress with the body of a goddess, he told me. [16] His role was later revealed as the main antagonist of Ubisoft's Far Cry 6, in which he would portray and voice Antn Castillo, the dictatorial ruler of Yara. Esposito and Favreau had previously worked together on the TV show Revolution and the movie The Jungle Book. The ruthless drug kingpin he portrayed calculated the violent removal from the world of those who displeased him after flashing a cold stare. Esposito was only eight when he made his Broadway debut. Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to an Italian carpenter/stagehand father from Naples, Italy, and an African-American opera singer mother from Alabama. In 2006 Esposito starred in Last Holiday as Senator Dillings alongside Queen Latifah. His brother is Giancarlo Esposito, (Gus Fring, for all you Breaking Bad fans). While Giancarlo Esposito has been around for decades with plenty of movies and TV shows, there are certain roles that stand out . The naturalized French singer, dancer and actress was celebrated in her homeland for her risqu performances and signature costume of a girdle of artificial bananas. 0. . In 1988, he landed his breakout role as the leader ("Dean Big Brother Almighty") of the black fraternity "Gamma Phi Gamma" in director Spike Lee's film School Daze, exploring color relations at black colleges. More and more actors are dipping their toes into the pool of philanthropy, and Esposito is no different. Watching him grandstand, sermonize, womanize, and blackmail Dixiecrats in Congress, I found myself wishing that more directors would let him flex his talents as a showman. I am African! 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