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Giancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Esposito, 2012
Born	Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (1958-04-26) April 26, 1958 (age 66) Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Actor, director, producer
Years active	1966—Present
Spouse	Joy McManigal (1995–?)(divorced)

Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (born April 26, 1958) is an ]-born American film and television actor and director best known for his roles in such films as Do the Right Thing, The Usual Suspects, and King of New York, and for his portrayal of Gustavo "Gus" Fring on the AMC series Breaking Bad, for which he won the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama award at the 2012 Critics' Choice Television Awards and was nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award at the 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards. He appeared in the ABC series Once Upon a Time as the Evil Queen's magic mirror and "Daily Mirror" reporter Sidney Glass, and he currently appears in the NBC post-apocalyptic TV drama Revolution as a Major of the Georgia Republic Military. In November, 2012 he was seen as a priest "Father Heery" in the motion picture Certainty.

Early life

Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and an African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same bill as Josephine Baker. His father was from Naples, and worked as a stagehand and carpenter. Esposito lived in Europe, until the family settled in Manhattan when he was six.

Career

Esposito made his Broadway debut (1966) at age eight playing a slave child opposite Shirley Jones in the short-lived Maggie Flynn. He did not take offense at the play's racial politics then; he was thrilled. "I had a solo and everything."

During the 1980s Esposito appeared in films such as Maximum Overdrive, King of New York, and Trading Places and TV shows such as Miami Vice and Spenser: For Hire. He played J.C. Pierce, a cadet in the 1981 movie Taps. 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. Over the next four years, Esposito and Lee collaborated on three other movies: Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, and Malcolm X. 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. He also appeared in the mainstream film Reckless with Mia Farrow and Waiting to Exhale starring Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett.

Esposito is known for his portrayal of FBI agent Mike Giardello on the TV crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street. That role reflected both his black and Italian heritage; he portrayed the character during the show's seventh and final season. Mike's estranged father, shift lieutenant Al Giardello, is portrayed as subject to racism, something Esposito's character practiced in School Daze. Another biracial role was Sergeant Paul Gigante in the television comedy series, Bakersfield P.D. (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1993–1994). In 1997 Esposito played the role of Darryl in Trouble on the Corner and Charlie Dunt in Nothing to Lose. Other TV credits include NYPD Blue, Law & Order, The Practice, New York Undercover, and Fallen Angels: Fearless.

Esposito has portrayed drug dealers (Fresh, Breaking Bad, King of New York), cops (The Usual Suspects, Derailed), political radicals (Bob Roberts, Do the Right Thing) and even a demonic version of the Greek God of Sleep Hypnos from another dimension (Monkeybone). He played Cassius Clay, Sr., in Ali and Nuyorican poet Miguel Piñero's friend and collaborator Miguel Algarín in Piñero, both released in 2001. In 2006 Esposito starred in Last Holiday as Senator Dillings, alongside Queen Latifah and Timothy Hutton. Also in 2006, he played an unsympathetic Detective named Esposito in the 2006 film, Hate Crime, written and directed by first-time director/writer Tommy Stovall and starring Seth Peterson, Bruce Davison, Chad Donella, Cindy Pickett, and Brian J. Smith. The film explores homophobia.

Esposito played Robert Fuentes, a Miami businessman with shady connections, on the UPN television series South Beach. He has appeared in New Amsterdam and CSI: Miami. He recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's hip hop literacy campaign to encourage reading about Muhammad Ali. In Feel the Noise (2007) he played ex-musician Roberto, the Puerto Rican father of Omarion Grandberry's character, aspiring rap star "Rob". Gospel Hill (2008) was Esposito's directorial debut; he also produced the film and starred in it. New York theatre credits for Esposito include The Me Nobody Knows, Lost in the Stars, Seesaw, and Merrily We Roll Along. In 2008 he appeared on Broadway as Gooper in an African American production of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Debbie Allen and starring James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, and Terrence Howard.

Between 2009 and 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 and the show's primary antagonist in the third and fourth seasons. Esposito received critical acclaim for this role. As noted above, he won the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama award at the 2012 Critics' Choice Television Awards and was nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award at the 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards. Esposito appears in Rabbit Hole (2010), with Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. He also appeared in an episode of the series Leverage, reuniting with his Taps co-star Hutton.

Esposito appeared in the first season of the ABC program Once Upon a Time that debuted in the fall of 2011. He portrayed the split role of Sidney, a reporter for The Daily Mirror in the town of Storybrooke, Maine, who in actuality is the Magic Mirror, possessed by The Evil Queen in a parallel fairy tale world. Esposito currently appears as Tom Neville in Revolution as a Major in the Monroe Militia who kills Ben Matheson in the Pilot and escorts a captured Danny back to the capital in Philadelphia.

Esposito has also appeared in Community as a guest star for an episode entitled "Digital Estate Planning". He is set to reappear in the delayed fourth season. Esposito has additionally appeared in an upcoming video of the action role-playing sci-fi first-person shooter Destiny, titled "Law of the Jungle".

Filmography

Film

Television

References

1. Heisler, Steve (7 October 2011). "Giancarlo Esposito". AV Club. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
2. LeVasseur, Andrea (c:a 2003). "Giancarlo Esposito Pictures, Biography, Filmography, News, Videos". All Movie Guide. Starpulse. Retrieved 2009-04-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
3. "Giancarlo Esposito Biography (1958–)". Film Reference. NetIndustries, LLC. Retrieved 2009-04-10. Giancarlo Giuseppi Alessandro Esposito; born April 26, 1958, in Copenhagen, Denmark; raised in New York, NY; father, a stagehand and carpenter; mother, an opera and nightclub singer; married Joy McManigal (a producer), June 1995; children: Shayne Lyra, Kale Lyn
4. "Giancarlo Esposito and confrontation". Los Angeles Times.
5. http://www.starpulse.com/Actors/Esposito,_Giancarlo/Biography/ Starpulse.com
6. "Giancarlo Esposito – Biography – Actor, Co-Producer, Director". Variety Profiles. Variety. Retrieved 2009-04-10. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
7. Andreeva, Nellie (July 18, 2011). "TV BITS: Giancarlo Esposito To Join ABC Series, Howie Mandel To Produce Reality Format, Ben Silveran To Publish Comic". Deadline. Mail.com Media Corp. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
8. "Major Tom Neville". IMDB. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
9. Kronke, David (February 17, 2012). "Exclusive: Giancarlo Esposito Talks About His Community Guest Shot". TV Guide. Retrieved February 18, 2012.

External links

• Giancarlo Esposito at IMDb
• Giancarlo Esposito at the Internet Broadway Database

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• Persondata templates without short description parameter
• 1958 births
• Actors from New York City
• American people of Italian descent
• African-American film actors
• African-American television actors
• Danish People of African-American descent
• Living people
• People from Copenhagen
• People from Manhattan