Santiago Cabrera

Santiago Cabrera (born May 5, 1978) is a Venezuelan born actor of Chilean descent, raised in and currently residing in London, England.

The middle child of a Chilean diplomat father and homemaker mother, Cabrera was born in Caracas, Venezuela and lived in Toronto, London, Madrid and Romania before his family returned to Chile when he was fifteen years old. As captain of the football team in high school, Cabrera focused on athletics before switching gears and headed towards acting when his high school drama teacher encouraged him to try acting. During his three years of training at the Drama Centre, Cabrera honed his acting skills in productions of "The Madras House," "A Month in the Country," "Napoli Milionaria," "Britannicus," "The Dutch Courtesan," "The Strangeness of Others," "A Field," "Three Birds Alighting On," and played the title character in "The Last Days of Don Juan."

Concurrent with his final year at the Centre, he made his television debut with small roles in the British television series "Battles of Britain," "Judge John Deed," "Spooks" and "As If." His first role after graduating from drama school was Montano in Shakespeare's "Othello," at the Northampton Theatre Royal. He has also starred in the 2006 film Love and Other Disasters, alongside Brittany Murphy and Matthew Rhys.

He has appeared on American television in Empire (where he portrays Octavius, Julius Caesar's teenage nephew, whom Caesar named as his successor before his death). Most notably, he is known for his role as Isaac Mendez in the popular NBC series Heroes.

In addition to his fluency in Spanish, English, French and Italian, Cabrera is skilled in tennis, hockey and scuba diving. On the January 20, 2007 episode of the NBC late-night program "Vivo Mun2", Cabrera discussed his semi-professional football career in London before he fully committed to acting. He also stated that C.D. Universidad Católica of Santiago is his favorite team. While he considers Santiago, Chile to be his hometown, he currently resides in London.