Rodrigo Santoro
Rodrigo Junqueira dos Reis Santoro (born 22 August 1975) is a Brazilian actor. He has appeared in many successful movies, including Brainstorm (2001), Carandiru (2003), Love Actually (2003), Che (2008), I Love You Phillip Morris (2009), and Rio (2011). He is perhaps most famous for his portrayal as Xerxes in the movie 300 (2006) and its subsequent sequel 300: Rise of an Empire (2014). He was also a series regular on the television series Lost portraying the character Paulo.
Life and career
Santoro was born in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro state, to Maria José Junqueira dos Reis, an artist, and Francesco Santoro, an engineer. His father is Italian and his mother is a Brazilian of Portuguese ancestry. In 1993, as Santoro was studying Journalism at PUC-Rio, he entered the Actor's Workshop of Rede Globo. Santoro went on to play parts in many of Globo's telenovelas, such as Olho no Olho (1993), Pátria Minha (1994), Explode Coração (1995), O Amor Está no Ar (1997), Suave Veneno (1999) and Mulheres Apaixonadas (2003), as well as the miniseries Hilda Furacão (1998), in the role of a priest. Santoro was also the voice actor of the titular character in Stuart Little and its sequel in the Brazilian dubbed copies.