Jose Pedro Balmaceda Pascal, born on April 2, 1975, better known as Pedro Pascal, is a Chilean-American actor. He is best known for portraying Oberyn Martell in the 4th season of the HBO series Game of Thrones, which was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. He is also known for playing Javier Pena in the Netflix crime drama series Narcos.
Profile Summary
- Name: Jose Pedro Balmaceda Pascal
- Born: April 2, 1975
- Age: 44
- Place of Birth: Santiago, Chile
- Alma Mater: Orange Country School of the Arts, New York University
- Occupation: Actor
- Years Active: 1996- present
- Relatives: brother of Lucas Balmaceda
- Height: 5’11’’ (1.8 m)
Early Life
Pedro Pascal was born in Santiago, Chile. His father, Jose Balmaceda is a fertility doctor while his mother, Veronica Pascal Ureta, was a child psychologist. Their family initially became part of a political asylum in Denmark. They ultimately moved to the USA where he was raised in Orange Country, California and San Antonio, Texas. Pascal was a competitive swimmer during his early years. At age 11, he took part in the state championships in Texas. But he stopped this endeavor and got enrolled into a drama class. He studied acting in Orange Country School of Arts and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Pascal is a native Spanish speaker and is also fluent in English. For over 20 years, he has lived in New York.
Acting Career
Pedro Pascal appeared in various television series including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Good Wife, Homeland, the Mentalist, and Graceland. In June 2013, he was cast as Oberyn Martell in the 4th season of the HBO series Game of Thrones. He said that before being casted into this role, he was already a huge Game of Thrones Fan which is why he was overjoyed to become a part in it.
Pedro Pascal has extensive experience as an actor and director. For his role in the International City Theater production of Orphans, he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the Garland Award.
Pedro Pascal Net Worth
According to Articlebio, Pedro Pascal has an estimated net worth of $2 million. A major contributor to this is his role as Javier Pena in the TV show Narcos.
Quotes by Pedro Pascal
- The only thing that being killed off on ‘Graceland’ helped me with on ‘Game of Thrones’ is that it made me available to actually do the job.
- I am such a ‘True Detective’ fan. I was anticipating it each Sunday as it came. I’m kind of a sci-fi fan. I was really hooked on the ‘Battlestar Galactica’ series. I think I owned every box set of ‘Battlestar Galactica.’ I also really love ‘Bob’s Burgers.’
- My family is Chilean, and I was born there. By the time I was four, we were living in San Antonio, Texas, and I just remember picking a blue bonnet and getting yelled at by some guy with a sheriff hat and a badge. I was traumatized. He told me it was the state flower, and I wasn’t supposed to be messin’ with it.
- I have really fond memories of Texas. By the time I was eight, we started to go back to Chile very regularly, and many family members came to visit us because we couldn’t go visit them.
- The acting training in school was great, but it was mostly fun being young and in New York. Because my upbringing was so transient, New York ended up being my home. I’ve been living in New York longer than I have anywhere else in my life.
- I just went to your typical public schools, and my dad would take us to the movies every week, or he’d buy scalped tickets to San Antonio Spurs games. I remember I was four or five years old and my parents, who were very young, took us to see The Police in Austin, and Iggy Pop opened.
- I have the cliche ‘struggling actor’ story. I was waiting tables in New York, went out to L.A. soon after graduation to get some jobs, but it didn’t work out. I wanted to cut my teeth in professional theater, so I came back to New York. It made my journey a longer one, but I really wanted to excel in the theater.
- Steven Spielberg’s name was all over ‘Poltergeist,’ and ‘E.T.’ was out the same year, which every single parent took their child to. So despite ‘Poltergeist’ being a horror movie, I convinced my parents to let me see it. It was terrifying. I guess this says a lot about me as a six-year-old, because I loved it.