Nestor Carbonell

Richard Alpert walked into Lost in Season 3 and didn't age across more than a century of flashbacks. That mystery carried a show already drowning in mysteries. Carbonell spent years before that grinding through ethnic-stereotype roles on network TV, then briefly found cult status as Batmanuel on The Tick, nine episodes that got cancelled before anyone knew what to do with him. Lost figured it out: cast him as the one character nobody could explain.

The 2024 Emmy for Shogun, won for three guest episodes as the foul-mouthed sailor Vasco Rodrigues, was his first. That took about 35 years. He's been a recurring presence on The Morning Show and keeps booking projects including The Rip, a 2026 Netflix film starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. He's directed episodes of Bates Motel and Law & Order and is developing his first feature as writer-director. A guest-actor Emmy at 56, after decades of cult figures and supporting roles, is a particular kind of timing.

Every new show he appears in restarts the same conversation: is he wearing eyeliner? He isn't. His dark eye rings are natural, the result of periorbital hyperpigmentation. The Lost makeup team actually applied concealer around his eyes to tone down the natural darkness, which is the most counterintuitive beauty decision in prestige television. He graduated Harvard in 1990 with an English degree and discovered acting through a college elective. He modeled Sheriff Romero on Bates Motel after a close family friend nicknamed Chuckles who rarely smiled.