Oscar Isaac

Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada (born March 9, 1979) is an American actor. In 2006, he portrayed Saint Joseph, husband of Mary, in The Nativity Story. He also portrayed José Ramos-Horta, former president of East Timor and corecipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, in the Australian film Balibo, for which he won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His other early film roles include Body of Lies (2007), Robin Hood (2010), and W.E. (2011). Isaac earned critical acclaim for his roles in Drive (2011), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination, the crime drama A Most Violent Year (2014), and the science fiction thriller Ex Machina (2015).

He gained international stardom for his performance in the Star Wars sequel trilogy as X-wing pilot Poe Dameron, and in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) as the titular mutant supervillain Apocalypse. He also starred in the science fiction films Annihilation (2018), directed by Alex Garland, and Dune (2021), directed by Denis Villeneuve. Isaac voiced Miguel O'Hara in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse from Sony Pictures Animation, which was released in December 2018 and will reprise the role for the sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One), in 2022. Isaac will star as Marc Spector / Moon Knight in the upcoming Disney+ series Moon Knight (2022), which is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

He is also known for his television roles such as the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero (2015), and Scenes from a Marriage for which he earned Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film nominations, with Isaac winning the award for the first one.

Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, to a Guatemalan mother, María Eugenia Estrada Nicolle, and a Cuban father, Óscar Gonzalo Hernández-Cano, a pulmonologist. He has two siblings: an older sister, climate scientist Nicole Hernandez Hammer; and a younger brother, journalist Mike Hernandez. Isaac's family migrated to the U.S. when he was five months old, and they frequently moved around the country, including Washington D.C., Virginia, Louisiana, Maryland, and different places throughout Florida, in particular Miami, where they eventually settled. He has described his Evangelical upbringing as "very Christian." He has also said that he has French origins through his grandfather, describing himself as "definitely a big mix of many things" and therefore is considered a notable French Guatemalan.

Isaac caused trouble at his private grade school, Westminster Christian, when growing up. "I set off a fire extinguisher in the gym, defaced a mural, just stupid stuff", he said in an interview. He liked to make kids laugh. At one point, his teacher had to screen off his desk from the rest of the class with a piece of cardboard. Eventually, he was expelled.

Isaac's entry into professional acting began at the Area Stage Company, Miami Beach, when Artistic Director John Rodaz cast him in a play. He also acted in Miami-based City Theatre's Summer Shorts short play festival in 2000–2001. While in Miami, he played lead guitar and sang vocals for ska-punk band The Blinking Underdogs. Other band members included Nick Speck (bass), Bill Sommer (drums), Alan Mills (trombone), Keith Cooper (saxophone), and Matt LaPlant (guitar). The band enjoyed some success, opening for Green Day and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Isaac spent his musical years living a "straight edge" lifestyle. Isaac put music aside after being accepted into the acting program of New York's prestigious Juilliard School in 2001. While a student there, he worked on one of his first films, All About the Benjamins (2002). He was part of the Drama Division's Group 34 (2001–2005).

1996-2010: Early roles

Isaac made his acting debut in the 1996 crime drama Illtown, credited as "Pool Boy". Next, he appeared briefly in 2002's All About the Benjamins and made an appearance on the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent four years later. Isaac garnered recognition in his first major film role in 2006 as Joseph in the biblical epic The Nativity Story, opposite Keisha Castle-Hughes. He appeared as Romeo in the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park performances of Romeo and Juliet and as Proteus in Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Isaac had a small role in Guerrilla, Part Two of the Che Guevara biographical film Che (2008), and was awarded the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2009 for his role as José Ramos-Horta in Balibo (2009). In the same year, Isaac appeared as the Roman prefect Orestes in Alejandro Amenábar's movie Agora. He played King John in the 2010 film Robin Hood.

2011-2014: Critical breakthrough

He portrayed a security guard in the Madonna-directed historical romance drama W.E. alongside Abbie Cornish. He also appeared in the Nicolas Winding Refn crime drama Drive, both of which were released in September 2011. He had a role as a musician in 10 Years. He performed his own song "Never Had" in the film. "Never Had" and "You Ain't Goin Nowhere" were included in the movie's soundtrack.

In 2013, Isaac starred in the dramatic comedy film Inside Llewyn Davis, written and directed by the Coen brothers, where he played a talented yet unsuccessful folk singer in Greenwich Village in 1961. The film won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. For the role of Llewyn, Isaac was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 2014 Golden Globes. He costarred with Jessica Chastain in J. C. Chandor's film A Most Violent Year (2014), replacing actor Javier Bardem.

2015-present: International stardom

In 2015, Isaac portrayed Nathan Hamlet Bateman in the science fiction film Ex Machina and starred in the 6-episode HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero, receiving universal critical acclaim and winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film for his performance as politician Nick Wasicsko. Isaac costarred in the epic space opera film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, released on December 18, 2015, playing Poe Dameron, an X-wing pilot. He reprised the role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, released on December 15, 2017, and in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), the final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

Isaac played X-Men villain Apocalypse in the film X-Men: Apocalypse, which was released on May 27, 2016. Also that year, he played the lead role in the historical drama The Promise, with costar Christian Bale, in a story about the Armenian genocide. He narrated the Nike ad "Unlimited You" created by Wieden+Kennedy. In November 2016, the first episode of the podcast series Homecoming was released. It is a six-episode psychological thriller from Gimlet Media, costarring Catherine Keener and David Schwimmer; Isaac voices a soldier trying to rejoin civilian life.

In July 2017, Isaac starred as Prince Hamlet in The Public Theater production of Hamlet alongside Keegan-Michael Key, Ritchie Coster, Gayle Rankin, Roberta Colindrez, and Anatol Yusef. The production, directed by Sam Gold, ran until September 2017. His performance received acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Also that year, Isaac appeared in the black comedy Suburbicon, directed by George Clooney and written by the Coen Brothers. It was his second role in a Coens-written film, after Inside Llewyn Davis.

Isaac costarred with Natalie Portman in the film adaptation of the novel Annihilation, playing her character's husband. Directed by Alex Garland, the role is Isaac's second collaboration with the director, after Ex Machina. In late-January 2019, Isaac was cast as Duke Leto Atreides in the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film Dune. In 2019, Isaac was cast in the Paul Schrader film The Card Counter and starred in the action-adventure film Triple Frontier directed by J. C. Chandor as Pope, an ex-CAG operative.

Upcoming projects

Isaac will star in and produce The Great Machine, an adaptation of the comic Ex Machina. He is also slated to star in London, a science fiction film to be directed by Ben Stiller. Isaac is set to play the titular character of the 2022 Disney+ series Moon Knight. In December 2020, it was announced that Isaac would star as Solid Snake in the film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts. In October 2021, he was cast in an untitled project with Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell, written and directed by Martin McDonagh.

Isaac has been dubbed a sex symbol and "the Internet's Boyfriend" by multiple media outlets, most notably Rolling Stone magazine, though he has expressed skepticism about the label. In 2016, Time named Isaac one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the annual Time 100 list. In 2017, Isaac was described as the "best dang actor of his generation" by Vanity Fair. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him #14 in its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.

In December 2007, he became engaged to Maria Miranda. In a 2010 interview, he mentioned having a wife. He met Danish film director Elvira Lind in 2012, and they married in February 2017. They have two sons: Eugene, born April 2017, and Mads, born October 2019. The family lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Isaac is a naturalized United States citizen. He is bilingual in English and Spanish. Isaac is an accomplished singer and guitar player, having played since the age of twelve.

Film

Key

Denotes productions that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Illtown	Pool Boy
2002	All About the Benjamins	Francesco/Frank
2004	Lenny the Wonder Dog	Detective Fartman
2006	Pu-239	Shiv
	The Nativity Story	Saint Joseph
2007	The Life Before Her Eyes	Marcus
2008	Che	Interpreter
	Body of Lies	Bassam
2009	Agora	Orestes
	Balibo	José Ramos-Horta
2010	Robin Hood	John, King of England
2011	Sucker Punch	Blue Jones
	W.E.	Evgeni
	10 Years	Reeves
	Drive	Standard Gabriel
2012	For Greater Glory	Victoriano "El Catorce" Ramírez
	Revenge for Jolly!	Cecil
	The Bourne Legacy	Outcome No. 3
	Won't Back Down	Michael Perry
2013	Inside Llewyn Davis	Llewyn Davis
	In Secret	Laurent LeClaire
2014	The Two Faces of January	Rydal Keener
	Ticky Tacky	Lucien	Short film
	A Most Violent Year	Abel Morales
2015	Ex Machina	Nathan Bateman
	Mojave	John "Jack" Jackson
	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	Poe Dameron
2016	X-Men: Apocalypse	En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse
	The Promise	Mikael Boghosian
2017	Lightningface	Basil Stitt	Short film; also executive producer
	Suburbicon	Bud Cooper
	Star Wars: The Last Jedi	Poe Dameron
2018	Annihilation	Kane
	Operation Finale	Peter Malkin	Also producer
	At Eternity's Gate	Paul Gauguin
	Life Itself	Will Dempsey
	Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse	Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099	Cameo; voice role; character credited as "Interesting Person #1"
2019	Triple Frontier	Santiago "Pope" Garcia
	The Addams Family	Gomez Addams	Voice role
	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker	Poe Dameron
2020	The Letter Room	Richard	Short film; also executive producer
2021	The Card Counter	William Tell
	Dune	Duke Leto Atreides
	The Addams Family 2	Gomez Addams	Voice role
2022	Big Gold Brick	Anselm	Post-production; also executive producer
	Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One)	Miguel O'Hara / Spider-Man 2099	Voice role; in production
TBA	Metal Gear Solid	Solid Snake	Pre-production
TBA	Francis and the Godfather	Francis Ford Coppola	Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Robbie Paulson	Episode: "The Healer"
2015	Show Me a Hero	Nick Wasicsko	6 episodes
2018–2019	Star Wars Resistance	Poe Dameron (voice)	4 episodes
2021	Scenes from a Marriage	Jonathan	5 episodes; also executive producer
2022	Moon Knight	Marc Spector / Moon Knight	Post-production, 6 episodes; also executive producer
	Saturday Night Live	Himself (host)	Episode: "Oscar Isaac/Charli XCX"

Video games

Podcasts

Stage