Oscar Isaac

Oscar Isaac, born Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada on March 9, 1979, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, is an American actor whose work spans film, television, and stage. His family relocated to the United States when he was five months old, and they lived in Baltimore, New Orleans, and Miami before settling permanently in South Florida. Isaac has a Cuban father, Óscar Gonzalo Hernández-Cano, a pulmonologist, and a Guatemalan mother, María Eugenia Estrada Nicolle. He has an older sister, climate scientist Nicole, and a younger brother, journalist Mike. He became a United States citizen in 2006 and speaks both English and Spanish.

Isaac attended Westminster Christian School in southern Florida before transferring to Santaluces Community High School, from which he graduated in 1998. During his teenage years he joined a Christian ska punk band called The Blinking Underdogs, which opened for Green Day. He also took a two-day workshop with a casting director that led to a small part in the independent film Illtown (1998), and he performed in several stage productions at the Area Stage Company in Miami Beach following a chance meeting with artistic director John Rodaz. He later studied performing arts at Miami Dade College and, during a trip to New York City to appear in an Off-Broadway production of When it's Cocktail Time in Cuba, successfully auditioned for the Juilliard School. While studying there he appeared in a production of Macbeth and worked on the film All About the Benjamins (2002). He graduated from Juilliard with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2005.

Following graduation, Isaac performed in small New York clubs and appeared at the Public Theater in Two Gentlemen of Verona (2005), playing Proteus. The following year he portrayed Federico García Lorca in New York City Center's production of Beauty of the Father and took on the role of Joseph in the biblical epic The Nativity Story (2006), opposite Keisha Castle-Hughes. He played Romeo alongside Lauren Ambrose in the Public Theater's Romeo and Juliet (2007), a production that also marked an early stage credit before his screen career accelerated. He won an AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of political leader José Ramos-Horta in the Australian film Balibo (2009), and he went on to appear in supporting roles in Robin Hood (2010) and Drive (2011).

Isaac's breakthrough came with the title role in the Coen Brothers' musical drama Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. He subsequently took leading roles in A Most Violent Year (2014), Ex Machina (2015), and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). He became a global star through his portrayal of Poe Dameron across the Star Wars sequel trilogy between 2015 and 2019. Additional film credits include Operation Finale (2018), which also marked his first venture into production, Annihilation (2018), Dune (2021), The Card Counter (2021), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), and Frankenstein (2025).

On television, Isaac starred in three miniseries: Show Me a Hero (2015), in which his portrayal of Nick Wasicsko earned him a Golden Globe Award; Scenes from a Marriage (2021); and the Marvel Cinematic Universe series Moon Knight (2022), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

Isaac's stage work has included the title roles in Hamlet (2017) and The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, which marked his Broadway debut in 2023. The production received a Tony Award nomination for Best Revival of a Play that same year. His career has drawn significant recognition beyond individual awards: Vanity Fair named him the best actor of his generation in 2017, The New York Times included him among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century in 2020, and Time magazine featured him on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016.