Nestor Serrano

Nestor Serrano is an American actor of Puerto Rican descent, born on November 5, 1955, in the Bronx, New York. He trained at Queens College and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, both located in New York City.

Serrano began his professional acting career in off-Broadway productions in the late 1970s before transitioning to Broadway, where he performed from 1985 to 1995. His Broadway credits include The Tempest, Cuba & His Teddy Bear, and The Boys of Winter.

His film career launched with the 1986 Tom Hanks comedy The Money Pit, and he subsequently appeared in supporting roles across a range of productions, including Lethal Weapon 2, Bad Boys, The Negotiator, The Insider, The Day After Tomorrow, Runaway Jury, Empire, and Secretariat.

On television, Serrano has accumulated an extensive list of credits spanning multiple decades. He is perhaps best recognized for portraying Islamic terrorist Navi Araz in the fourth season of the Fox series 24. He played Emilio Loera in the fourth season of the Cinemax series Banshee, and portrayed drug cartel leader Hector Estrada in Season 7 of the Showtime series Dexter. He played Carlos Solano, leader of the Solano Cartel, on the USA series Graceland. Additional television appearances include Burn Notice, Homeland, Alias, Blue Bloods, Ugly Betty, the CW series 90210, Criminal Minds, and Law & Order along with its spin-offs SVU, Trial by Jury, and Criminal Intent. In 2017, he appeared as the psychiatrist Dr. Saul in the thriller film Clinical. Throughout his career, Serrano has frequently been cast as authority figures on both sides of the law.