The year 2021 might well be called Oscar Isaac’s year: this year, the Golden Globe winner has been seen in three critically acclaimed projects, all of which premiered globally at the Venice Film Festival: The Card Counter by Paul Schrader, Dune by Denis Villeneuve and HBOs Scenes from a Marriage – it was the last that brought him his third Golden Globe nomination. This year he was nominated for Best Actor – Limited, Series, Anthology or a Motion Picture made for Television – for the role of Jonathan Levy in an English-language remake of Ingmar Bergman’s iconic television series of the same name created by Hagai Levi.
Born in Guatemala on March 9, 1979, Isaac was raised in Florida after his family relocated to the States when he was just five months old. After graduating from New York’s prestigious Julliard School, he got his first major film role in 2006 as Joseph in the biblical epic The Nativity Story by Catherine Hardwick, which was the first film to have its world premiere in Vatican City. After that, Isaac made notable appearances in two films by Ridley Scott, co-starring with Leonardo DiCaprio in Body of Lies (2008) and with Russell Crowe in Robin Hood (2010).
In 2011, he was a part of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive co-starring Ryan Gosling followed by Jeremy Renner-led The Bourne Legacy, although the critical breakthrough in his acting career happened with his collaboration with the Coen Brothers in their 2012 dramatic comedy Inside Llewyn Davis. For his performance as a talented yet unsuccessful folk singer in Greenwich Village in 1961, Isaac received his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and moved up to the next level of success in Hollywood. This was followed by the role of X-Men villain Apocalypse in Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016; in 2015 he joined the J.J. Abrams’ reboot of Star Wars in the role of X-wing pilot Poe Dameron, a character he played in all three installments of this epic space opera film until the finale of the Star Wars sequel trilogy was released in 2019.
In 2017, Isaac co-starred with Matt Damon and Julianne Moore in Suburbicon, a black comedy written by the Coen Brothers and directed by George Clooney. Also, that year, he made his triumphant comeback to the stage of New York’s Public Theater: almost a decade after his appearance as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, he played Hamlet in Sam Gold’s production of the play. Isaac’s film credits also include a voice part in The Addams Family’s animation reboot, in which he played Gomez Addams, husband of Morticia Addams, voiced by Charlize Theron.
Interestingly, HBOs Scenes from a Marriage, which has earned Isaac his third Golden Globe nomination, is only his second television project. For his first television lead role – that of politician Nick Wasicsco in HBOs miniseries Show Me a Hero in 2015 – he won his first Golden Globe award for the Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. Scenes from a Marriage is Isaac’s second project with his co-star and screen wife Jessica Chastain. He met his fellow Julliard School graduate when he replaced Javier Bardem on the set of 2014s A Most Violent Year by J.C. Chandor.
Next year Isaac will return to the small screen as Mark Spector/Moon Knight in Marvel’s Moon Knight miniseries for Disney+. He has also been announced as the character of Solid Snake in the film adaptation of the video game Metal Gear SolidBarry Levinson has tapped him to play Francis Ford Coppola in Francis and The Godfather, a drama about the legendary battles that went into the making of the 1972 classic The Godfather.