Giancarlo Esposito was born in Copenhagen on April 26, 1958.
His parents met in Teatro della Scala in Milan, where Giovanni “John” Esposito was a Neapolitan carpenter and Elizabeth “Leeza” Foster was an African-American opera singer. At the age of 6 he left Italy and the family moved to Emsford, north of New York.
His first appearance was on Broadway in the musical Maggie Flynn, where he played a young slave. Before he found his way playing The big bad in the TV series, he participated in numerous theatre performance, thanks to his ability to dance and his Neapolitan roots. In 1979 he participated in his first film Running by Steven Hilliard Stern, to work with other directors such as Abel Ferrara, Francis Ford Coppola and Spike Lee. Giancarlo Esposito appeared in more than 100 films and several TV series, such as Miami Vice. From 2009 to 2011 is one of the leading figures of the television series Breaking Bed, where he plays The big bad in the TV series, a drug-trafficking kingpin Gustavo “Gus” Fring.
Since 2012 is among the main characters of the first and second season of the TV series Revolution, where he plays the role of a captain of the militia. Also in the webseries Payday 2 appears as The big bad in the TV series, with his character The Dentist, who boasts contacts with different background of the underworld.
He plays Moff Gideon, The big bad in the TV series The Mandalorian, the Star Wars spin-off series, where he wears a cape and wields a light saber.
Giancarlo Esposito is very satisfied to be Italian, we can learn from his words: “My father, when I was a child, told me that in Italy everything is better, just think that it is the homeland of Galileo, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Visconti… But in America, everybody crippled my name, at some point I even thought about changing it. Once during a shooting of a film Madonna told me: «You should only be called Giancarlo.» But I love Italy, the passion, the integrity of Italians and I don’t love labels and therefore I want to be known as Giancarlo Esposito and I’m proud of it.”
We can only be honored by the words of our fellow compatriot. Although he plays the role of The big bad in the TV series, Giancarlo Esposito has a red, green and white heart that beats in his chest.
If you want to discover the place of origin of this very good actor we invite you to follow us in the tour View on the Gulf and read the articles Lacryma Christi: between history and legend, Pizza Margherita, Below Sea Level and A truly exceptional discovery.
