Jorge Garcia

J.J. Abrams saw him selling weed to Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm and by the next morning was creating a character specifically for Garcia. The Hurley that ended up on Lost had nothing in common with the original concept, a 50-year-old redneck NRA type, because the writers redesigned everything once they had him. He auditioned reading Sawyer's lines since Hurley didn't exist yet. Six seasons and a Golden Satellite Award nomination later, it's hard to imagine the show working any other way.

After Lost, the roles kept coming but the cultural moment didn't: a co-lead on Fox's canceled Alcatraz, a recurring spot on Hawaii Five-0 as the show's conspiracy theorist, an indie drama. Bookie on Max gave him his best post-Lost material, playing a reformed drug dealer in a comedy that ran two seasons before wrapping in 2025. Outside of acting, he's gotten more press lately for reportedly losing close to 100 pounds than for anything on screen.

Weezer named their 2010 album Hurley after his Lost character and put a close-up of his face on the cover, then had him guest at several concerts that year. Garcia called himself a 'casual' fan of the band, which is the right amount of weird for that situation. His background doesn't match the Hurley archetype at all: Cuban mother who's a professor, Chilean father who's a doctor, suburban Orange County upbringing, stand-up comedy as a hobby.