Giancarlo Esposito

Stage-trained supporting player of films and TV since the 1980s. Half-African American, half-Italian, Esposito has distinguished himself playing Black characters. He made his Broadway debut at age eight opposite Shirley Jones in "Maggie Flynn" (1966) and went on to other NYC stage work including "Miss Moffatt" (1977), starring Bette Davis, "Balm in Gilead", directed by John Malkovich, and "Zooman and the Sign". Esposito worked in about half a dozen features before beginning a fruitful association with writer-director Spike Lee, appearing in "School Daze" (1988), "Do the Right Thing" (1989), "Mo' Better Blues" (1990) and "Malcolm X" (1992). He was most impressive as Buggin' Out, the shrill, self-styled activist who instigates the neighborhood crisis in "Do the Right Thing.” Esposito is particularly convincing as edgy marginal characters. His clear-eyed portrayal of Bugs Raglin, a scruffy reporter from the alternative press, rose above the general smugness of "Bob Roberts" (1992). Esposito's feature credits include Abel Ferrara's "King of New York" (1990) and Jim Jarmusch's "Night on Earth" (1991).

Television gave the biracial actor a rare opportunity to play a character who shares his dual heritage as Sergeant Paul Gigante on the clever cop comedy, "Bakersfield P.D." (Fox, 1993-94). He visited this terrain again with his 1998-1999 stint on "Homicide: Life on the Street", playing Mike Giardello, an FBI agent assigned to the Baltimore homicide unit run by his father (Yaphet Kotto) and particularly impressed with a stirring turn in a 1999 hostage crisis episode pairing him with his "Bakersfield P.D." co-star Ron Eldard. In 2000, Esposito got a role on the short-lived Wall Street drama "The Street" on FOX. He played Will Smith's father, Casius Clay Sr. in the film "Ali" in 2001 and also appeared in another biopic "Pinero" in the same year. 2002 marked a return to series television with a role in the FOX ensemble drama "Girl's Club,” about three female lawyers who live together in San Francisco.

Appearances in episodes of “Lucky” (FX, 2002-2003) and “Law & Order: Trial By Jury” (2004-2005) were followed by a supporting role in the low-budget political thriller, “Blind Horizon” (2004). He returned to the small screen to be in the sci-fi horror made-for-TV movie “Chupacabra: Dark Seas” (2005). Then in “Derailed” (2005), Esposito had another small role in this dramatic thriller about a Chicago advertising exec (Clive Owen) who misses his regular commuter train and becomes involved with a charming and seductive woman (Jennifer Aniston), then sees his life fall apart when blackmailed into committing dangerous and violent acts by a deranged criminal (Vincent Cassel). Esposito was next seen in the Queen Latifah comedy vehicle, “Last Holiday” (2006), playing a sleazy, out-of-touch senator staying at a European resort where he encounters a formerly shy salesperson (Latifah) on an emboldening dream vacation after learning she's terminally ill, whose infectious new attitude transforms the lives of staff and guests alike.

• Born:
  April 26, 1958 in Copenhagen, Denmark
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Playwright

Family

• Daughter: Kate Lyn McManigal Esposito. born on May 10, 1998 in Bel Air, California
• Daughter: Shayne Lyra McManigal Esposito. born June 8, 1996 in Culver City, California

Significant Others

• Companion: Fia Porter. appeared with Esposito in Malcolm X (1992)

Education

• Professional Children s School, New York, New York

Milestones

• 1966 Made Broadway debut in Maggie Flynn at the age of eight
• 1973 Had featured role in the Broadway musical Seesaw ; performed the musical number Spanglish
• 1979 Made film debut in Running
• 1981 Acted in the short-lived Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along
• 1981 Featured in the ensemble drama Taps
• 1981 TV-movie debut in The Gentleman Bandit (CBS)
• 1982 Had a regular role on the CBS daytime drama Guiding Light
• 1983 Played a bit part in Trading Places ; also featured in Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
• 1984 Acted in Francis Ford Coppola s The Cotton Club
• 1985 Had a cameo role in the comedy feature Desperately Seeking Susan and a memorable guest turn as Adonis Jackson on Miami Vice (NBC)
• 1986 Acted in the miniseries Roanoak (PBS), a chronicle of English explorers first encounters with Native Americans in the New World
• 1986 Appeared in the Stephen King drama Maximum Overdrive
• 1988 First collaboration with Spike Lee, School Daze
• 1989 Played incendiary neighborhood activist Buggin Out in Spike Lee s acclaimed Do the Right Thing
• 1990 Acted in Lee s Mo Better Blues
• 1990 Featured in Abel Ferrara s cult hit King of New York
• 1991 Played YoYo in the New York-set segment of Jim Jarmusch s Night on Earth
• 1992 Appeared in the biopic Malcolm X ; fourth feature with Spike Lee
• 1992 Co-starred as Bugs Raplin, an investigative journalist with dirt on Senate hopeful Bob Roberts in Tim Robbins comedic pseudo-documentary pseudo-documentary
• 1993 Co-starred in Simple Justice , an installment of the PBS The American Experience docudrama series examining the groundbreaking Brown vs. the Board of Education ruling
• 1994 Starred as a drug dealer who takes a streetwise teen under his wing in Boaz Yakin s drama Fresh
• 1995 Appeared in the short-lived Broadway play Sacrilege
• 1995 Co-produced and starred in The Keeper , playing a corrections officer on a journey of self-discovery
• 1995 Featured in The Usual Suspects , Reckless and Kla$h as well as Wayne Wang s Smoke and its follow up Blue in the Face
• 1996 Guest starred on episodes of Chicago Hope , Nash Bridges (both CBS), NYPD Blue (ABC) and Living Single (Fox)
• 1997 Was featured alongside the odd buddy pairing Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins in the adventure film Nothing to Lose
• 1998 Had a supporting role in Robert Benton s Twilight , starring veterans Paul Newman, James Garner and Gene Hackman
• 1998 Played a hit man hired to murder an old high school pal in Showtime s Naked City: Justice With a Bullet
• 2000 Reprised role of Special Agent Mike Giardello in Homicide: The Movie (NBC)
• 2000 Returned to series TV as co-star of the Fox drama The $treet
• 2000 Starred in the sci-fi adventure Stardust ; aired on HBO in lieu of theatrical release
• 2001 Had featured role in Pinero , a biopic of the Latino poet-playwright Miguel Pinero
• 2002 Landed another television series role in FOX drama Girl s Club
• 2005 Cast opposite Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston in the psychological thriller Derailed
• 2006 Played Maggie Gyllenhaal s parole officer in Sherrybaby
• Co-starred as FBI Agent Mike Giardello on NBC s Homicide: Life on the Street
• Co-starred in the Broadway musical Don t Get God Started
• Portrayed Ernesto in the New York theater production of Balm in Gilead , directed by John Malkovich
• Starred as Sgt. Paul Gigante on the quirky sitcom Bakersfield P.D. (Fox)