Santiago Cabrera Biography

Santiago Cabrera (born 5 May 1978) is a Venezuelan-born Chilean 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 also starred as Aramis in the BBC series The Musketeers.

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.

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 Catlica 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. Although he considers Santiago, Chile, his hometown, he splits his time between London and Los Angeles.

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.

Personal life

Cabrera is married to Anna Marcea, a theatre director. Their son Kilian Emiliano was born in April 2016.

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	Miniseries (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 (2008), 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	Jimmy
2012	For Greater Glory	Father Vega	Feature film
2012	Hemingway & Gellhorn	Robert Capa	TV film
2012	Dexter	Sal Price	TV series
2012	Falcn	Judge Esteban Caldern	TV series
2012-2013	Anna Karenina	Vronsky	Miniseries
2014 - 2016	The Musketeers	Aramis	TV series (main cast)
2015	Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise	Narrator	TV series
2016	The Mindy Project	Diego	TV series; Season 4, Episode 21: "Under the Texan Sun"
2017	Big Little Lies	Joseph	TV HBO Limited Series starring Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and others
2017	Transformers: The Last Knight	Santos	Feature film: Paramount Pictures director Michael Bay, starring Mark Wahlberg, Josh Duhamel, and others

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