Amaury Nolasco

Amaury Nolasco Garrido was born on December 24, 1970, in Puerto Rico, and raised in the coastal municipality of Vega Baja. The future actor grew up in a family of modest means, and as a young man he had no particular ambition to perform on screen. He was instead a strong student with a serious interest in the sciences, and he enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras with the intention of pursuing medicine. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology, studied chemistry as well, and prepared himself to apply to medical school. By his own account, the pivot toward acting came almost by accident, as a friend dragged him along to a casting call and a small workshop, and he discovered there a confidence and an instinct that surprised him. The experience was significant enough that he set aside the medical career path and committed to the much more uncertain life of an actor.

Nolasco moved to New York to study his new craft, training at the Actors Workshop and immersing himself in the bilingual theatre scene. Early roles in independent films, music videos and television guest spots followed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including small parts in the Spike Lee-produced indie 3 A.M. and the Brittany Murphy vehicle Riding in Cars with Boys. He appeared in single episodes of established series such as CSI: Miami and Six Feet Under, building the kind of resume that gradually earns an unknown working actor a foothold in Los Angeles. He also took a memorable supporting role as the smitten pool boy in the 2003 Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan, and in 2006 he appeared in the Rob Schneider sports comedy The Benchwarmers as Jose, a character who let him show off the easy comedic timing that would become a hallmark of his work.

The role that transformed Nolasco from a journeyman into a recognizable face arrived in 2005, when Fox cast him as Fernando Sucre, the warm-hearted, lovestruck cellmate of Wentworth Miller's Michael Scofield in Prison Break. Sucre was originally intended as a relatively minor part, but Nolasco's chemistry with Miller and the depth he brought to a man imprisoned for a robbery committed out of love quickly made the character a fan favorite. Over four seasons and the later 2017 revival, Sucre evolved from comic relief into one of the show's emotional anchors, and the role gave Nolasco the platform to break into film during the show's hiatuses. He was cast as Jorge "Fig" Figueroa, the laid-back roommate of Shia LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky, in Michael Bay's Transformers in 2007, a small but memorable comedic turn in one of the highest-grossing films of the decade. He followed that with a supporting role in the 2008 horror remake The Eye opposite Jessica Alba, and he played mob enforcer Tito in the 2009 Robert De Niro and Al Pacino crime drama Righteous Kill.

Other film credits during and after the Prison Break years included the high-school comedy Mr. Troop Mom, the dance film Max Steel, the indie drama Armed Response, and the family adventure Beyond the Trophy. He also lent his voice to several animated projects and to the Spanish-language dubs of his own English-language work, taking advantage of his fluency in both languages to expand the reach of his performances. On television he continued to balance leading and recurring roles. In 2012 he co-starred in the short-lived ABC sitcom Work It alongside Ben Koldyke and Rebecca Mader, playing Angel Ortiz, a freshly unemployed car salesman who, with a friend, dresses as a woman to land a pharmaceutical sales job. The series drew controversy and was cancelled after only two episodes aired, but Nolasco's good humor about the experience kept his profile intact.

He returned to ensemble drama with a recurring role on the Mark Harmon spin-off NCIS: New Orleans and a guest arc on Telenovela. From 2016 onward he became a familiar face in Dick Wolf's One Chicago universe, recurring on Chicago P.D. as Antonio Dawson's friend and fellow officer Detective Jay Halstead's contact, and crossing over into Chicago Fire and Chicago Justice. He took on the role of FBI Agent Trent in the legal drama Bull, played the title character's father in the Disney Channel series Gabby Duran and the Unsittables, and added voice work in the animated series Elena of Avalor, which centered on the first Latina Disney princess. Nolasco also returned to the world that made his name when Prison Break was revived for a fifth season, reprising Sucre as a now-married man pulled back into the fold by old loyalties.

Off-screen, Nolasco has spoken often about the importance of representation for Latino actors in Hollywood, and he has used his platform to support charitable work in Puerto Rico, particularly after the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017. He has been involved with relief efforts in his hometown of Vega Baja, and he has championed initiatives that bring the arts to young people on the island. He is known among colleagues for the same easy warmth that made Sucre so endearing, and he has cultivated long friendships with several of his Prison Break castmates that have lasted well beyond the show's original run. He has dated within and outside the industry, including a relationship with the Mexican actress and former Miss Universe Daniela Mercury, but has tended to keep his personal life away from the tabloid spotlight.

In recent years Nolasco has continued to work steadily across film, streaming and network television, taking roles in the Hulu thriller Deep Water, the action film Lights Out, and various independent projects shot in Puerto Rico, the United States and Mexico. Now in his mid-fifties, he remains a working actor in the truest sense, moving between leading parts in smaller productions and recurring or supporting roles in major franchises. Whether quietly anchoring a courtroom scene, providing the comic heartbeat of a blockbuster or returning once more to the friend who waited for Michael Scofield, Amaury Nolasco has built a career defined less by a single signature triumph than by an unmistakable charm that has made him welcome on screen for more than two decades.