Timeline
Twenty years of bit parts, then three back-to-back franchises that made him inescapable.
The franchise player
The Fantastic Four casting came with instant backlash. Too old, fans said. Not right for Reed Richards. He acknowledged it publicly and showed up anyway, becoming the first Latino to play the character when The Fantastic Four: First Steps opened in July 2025. Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are already locked in after that. One iPhone audition in 2014 set a chain in motion that ends, somehow, at the center of Marvel's Phase Six.
TV's most reluctant father
Joel Miller is a different kind of role: almost no charm, no wit, just grief compressed into a man who shut himself off years ago. The Last of Us became a cultural event and his performance drove it. A SAG Award win in February 2024 came with a visibly half-drunk acceptance speech. He received an Emmy nomination the same year, one of very few Latinos nominated in that category since 1999, and a second nomination in 2025, the year Joel was killed off in episode two of Season 2. The character died. The performance kept getting recognized anyway.
The helmet era
For most of The Mandalorian's first season, he wasn't even on set. Stunt performers wore the armor while he was across town rehearsing King Lear on Broadway and filming Wonder Woman 1984. He dubbed in the voice later. The audience never knew and didn't care. The show worked because he figured out how to carry a scene with body language and cadence alone, no face required. The internet declared him a daddy in the meme sense. He didn't disagree.
Keeping the heat alive
Narcos kept him visible for three seasons as DEA agent Javier Pena, chasing Escobar and then the Cali Cartel. Steady work that kept his name in the conversation while the industry figured out what to do with him.
One season, one iPhone tape
Seventeen years of grinding ended with a tape filmed on a phone. Sarah Paulson passed it to Amanda Peet, who was married to Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff. Benioff later admitted the footage looked like shit but called the performance intense and right. Oberyn Martell lasted one season and died in a memorably brutal finale, but the internet kept the clip alive and the industry started paying attention. Sometimes all the access you need is knowing the right person's contact.
Background noise
Sixteen years of guest spots: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, NYPD Blue, The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, Homeland. The kind of career where the face looks familiar but nobody knows the name.
From Pinochet's Santiago to a Tisch BFA
At nine months old, his parents climbed over a wall into the Venezuelan embassy in Santiago to escape Pinochet's secret police. His family had sheltered a dissident from the Chilean Revolutionary Left Movement, and the regime was watching. After months inside the embassy, they moved through Venezuela and Denmark before landing in Orange County and eventually Texas. His professional name is his mother's, adopted after she died in 1999. He trained at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and graduated in 1997 with a BFA from the Experimental Theatre Wing. The biography alone is more dramatic than most careers.
Rise to Fame
He spent nearly twenty years doing nothing parts on network procedurals before landing Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones in 2014. He got the audition by convincing Sarah Paulson to pass his iPhone tape to Amanda Peet, who happened to be married to showrunner David Benioff. Oberyn lasted one season and died memorably, but the internet remembered. Narcos followed, then The Mandalorian, where he spent most of his screen time behind a helmet. The helmet didn't matter. The performance was physical and quiet and it worked.
In the Spotlight
Since The Last of Us, the demand hasn't let up. He took nine projects in roughly twelve months: Gladiator II, The Wild Robot, The Last of Us Season 2, plus The Fantastic Four: First Steps as Reed Richards, with two Avengers films already locked in after that. He won a SAG Award for The Last of Us and received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in Drama, one of very few Latinos to do so. The internet turned him into a daddy meme with 8.6 billion TikTok views. He addressed it plainly: "The Mandalorian is very daddy to baby Grogu. Joel is very daddy to Ellie. These are daddy parts."
Side Notes
When he was nine months old, his family climbed over a wall into the Venezuelan embassy in Santiago and demanded asylum. His parents had sheltered a leader of the Chilean Revolutionary Left Movement, and Pinochet's secret police were watching. After stints in Venezuela and Denmark he grew up in Texas and California. His professional name is his mother's, adopted after she died in 1999. His sister Lux Pascal, seventeen years younger, came out as transgender in 2021. He learned via FaceTime. His first response: "Perfect, this is incredible."