Early life and education Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito was born in
Copenhagen, Denmark. an African-American opera and nightclub singer from
Alabama. Esposito lived in
Rome, Italy, until he was five, when his family moved to the United States, settling in
Manhattan, New York City. He attended
Elizabeth Seton College in New York and earned a two-year degree in radio and television communications. He was also a member of the youthful cast of the
Stephen Sondheim–
Harold Prince collaboration
Merrily We Roll Along, which closed with 16 performances and 56 previews in 1981. During the 1980s, Esposito appeared in films such as
Maximum Overdrive, King of New York, and
Trading Places. He also performed in TV shows such as
Miami Vice and
Spenser: For Hire. He played J. C. Pierce, a cadet in the 1981 movie
Taps. In 1988, he landed his breakout role as the leader ("Dean Big Brother Almighty") of the black fraternity "Gamma Phi Gamma" in director
Spike Lee's film
School Daze, exploring color relations at black colleges. Over the next four years, Esposito and Lee collaborated on three other movies:
Do the Right Thing, ''
Mo' Better Blues,
and Malcolm X. During the 1990s, Esposito appeared in the acclaimed indie films Night on Earth, Fresh and Smoke,
as well as its sequel Blue in the Face. He also appeared in the mainstream films Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man with Mickey Rourke, Reckless with Mia Farrow, and Waiting to Exhale'' starring
Whitney Houston and
Angela Bassett. In 1996, Esposito was featured in a music video "
California" by French superstar
Mylène Farmer, directed by
Abel Ferrara. Esposito played FBI agent
Mike Giardello on the TV crime drama
Homicide: Life on the Street. That role drew from both his African American and
Italian ancestry. He played this character during the show's seventh and final season, and reprised the role for its 2000 made-for-TV movie. He had another multiracial role as Sergeant Paul Gigante in the television comedy,
Bakersfield P.D. In 1997, Esposito played the film roles of Darryl in
Trouble on the Corner and Charlie Dunt in
Nothing to Lose. Other TV credits include
NYPD Blue,
Law & Order,
The Practice,
New York Undercover, and
Fallen Angels: Fearless. Esposito has portrayed drug dealers (
Fresh, Breaking Bad, King of New York, Better Call Saul,
The Gentlemen), policemen (
The Usual Suspects, Derailed),
political radicals (
Bob Roberts, Do the Right Thing), and a
demonic version of the
Greek god of sleep
Hypnos from another dimension (
Monkeybone). In 2001, he played
Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. in
Ali, and
Miguel Algarín, friend and collaborator of
Nuyorican poet
Miguel Piñero, in
Piñero. In 2002, Esposito was cast as a legal eagle in the
David E. Kelley television drama
Girls Club. Although the series only lasted one season, and did not garner generally positive reviews, it represented a personal turning point for Esposito, who relayed to
The Washington Post: "I started to play bosses. And I realized, 'Oh, okay, this is an opportunity.' It was really a great opening for me to show who I really was. And it's kept going like that." From 2009 to 2011, Esposito appeared in seasons 2 through 4 of the
AMC drama
Breaking Bad, as
Gus Fring, the head of a
New Mexico-based
methamphetamine drug ring. In the fourth season, he was the show's primary antagonist, and won critical acclaim for this role. He won the
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama award at the
2012 Critics' Choice Television Awards and was nominated for an
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award at the
2012 Primetime Emmy Awards, but lost to co-star
Aaron Paul. Esposito appeared in the film
Rabbit Hole (2010). He also appeared in the first season of the
ABC program
Once Upon a Time, which debuted in October 2011. He portrayed the split role of Sidney Glass, a reporter for
The Daily Mirror in the town of Storybrooke, Maine, who is really a genie trapped in the Magic Mirror, possessed by The Evil Queen in a parallel fairy tale world. Esposito would periodically reprise the role in later seasons as a guest star. Esposito appeared in
Revolution as Major Tom Neville, a central character who kills Ben Matheson in the pilot. He escorts a captured Danny to the capital Philadelphia of the Monroe Republic. Esposito also appeared in
Community as a guest star for the episode titled "
Digital Estate Planning". He performed again in the fourth season, in the episode titled "Paranormal Parentage". Esposito has additionally appeared in a video of the action role-playing sci-fi first-person shooter game
Destiny. Esposito voices antagonist Faraday in the
Netflix anime series
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022). Esposito also voices
Antón Castillo, the main antagonist of the video game
Far Cry 6, who was modeled after Esposito's appearance. He was also included in the videogame
Payday 2, as the supporting character, then antagonist "The Dentist". |195x195px He has joined the
DC Universe Animated Original Movies series. He played
Ra's al Ghul in
Son of Batman and
Eric Needham / Black Spider in
Batman: Assault on Arkham. He also had a recurring role in the first season of
The Get Down on Netflix. In 2017, Esposito reprised his role as
Gus Fring in the
Breaking Bad prequel series,
Better Call Saul. In 2019, he appeared in the
first-season finale of
The Boys as
Stan Edgar, and reprised the role in the
second and
third season. In 2016, Esposito voiced
Akela in the film
The Jungle Book, which was directed by
Jon Favreau. Esposito and Favreau would work together once again in the
Disney+ series
The Mandalorian in which Esposito appears in a starring role, while Favreau acts as an executive producer for the series and as its writer. He plays the role of New York congressman
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in the 2019
Epix series
Godfather of Harlem. Raleigh 2023 In July 2020, Esposito began teasing his role in "a huge video game". His role was later revealed as the main antagonist of
Ubisoft's
Far Cry 6, in which he would portray and voice Antón Castillo, the dictatorial ruler of the fictional Caribbean island country of Yara. In 2022, Esposito played Taxi Driver in
Euphoria, a film installation by
Julian Rosefeldt. In 2024, he launched his first graphic novel,
The Venetian. In December 2024, Esposito was announced as a cast member in independent drama
Out Come the Wolves, based on the
Rancid 1995
album of the same name. In February 2025, Esposito appeared as
Seth Voelker/Sidewinder of the
Serpent Society in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film
Captain America: Brave New World. Esposito was added to the film's
reshoots. Esposito will appear in the upcoming Netflix limited series adaptation
All the Sinners Bleed, based on the
S. A. Cosby novel of the
same name. == Personal life ==