Oscar Isaac

Oscar Issac is a Golden Globe-winning actor who is best known for his roles as Poe Dameron in Star Wars and in numerous television shows and movies including Inside Llewyn Davis, Scenes From a Marriages, and Robin Hood.

Born Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada on March 9, 1979, in Guatemala City, Isaac’s family moved to the United States soon after he was born, and they eventually settled in Miami. As a child, Isaac took part in school plays and was part of several bands. He eventually went on to study performing arts, first at Miami Dade College and then at Juilliard, where he earned a B.F.A.

During the first few years of his acting career, Isaac performed in several of The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park productions, including Two Gentlemen of Verona and Romeo and Juliet. One of his first big screen roles at the time was as Joseph in The Nativity Story, and he landed smaller roles in other movies including Body of Lies and Balibo.

He later found greater success playing the villains in 2010’s Robin Hood and 2011’s Drive, eventually landing his biggest role to date playing the titular role in the Coen brothers’ 2013 Inside Llewyn Davis opposite Carey Mulligan. He received critical acclaim for his performance and earned his first Golden Globe nomination for the role.

Isaac’s career then skyrocketed as he starred in several films, including A Most Violent Year alongside Jessica Chastain and playing the lead role in Ex Machina. In 2015, he was cast in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero, where he played the lead role, the youngest Yonkers mayor, Nick Wasicsko, and went on to win a Golden Globe.

In the same year, he played Poe Dameron in the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which went on to be the highest grossing film of the year. Among his success in the film industry, Isaac returned to the stage in 2017 to play Hamlet in the Public’s Hamlet, a role he took in honor of his late mother.

Isaac has since taken on numerous other movie roles, including in the next two Star Wars films and the sci-fi epic Dune. He once again performed opposite Chastain in Scenes From a Marriage in 2021 (earning another Golden Globe nomination), and in 2022, he starred in and executive produced the Marvel series Moon Knight.

In 2023, Isaac returned to the stage to star alongside Rachel Brosnahan in the revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.