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.

His first major role in a cinema production came in 2001, with Bicho de Sete Cabeças (Brainstorm) by Brazilian director Laís Bodansky. By the end of the film, he received a standing ovation from the audience. He also went on to win the festival's best actor trophy. After Bicho, his reputation as an actor had been solidified and he was cast as the male lead in Abril Despedaçado (Behind the Sun), one of the nominees for best foreign film in the 2002 Golden Globe Awards. He had another performance in the 2003 Hector Babenco film Carandiru, where he played a transexual prisoner known as "Lady Di".

Canadian director Robert Allan Ackerman signed Santoro for his TV production The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone after being mesmerised by his performance in Bicho de Sete Cabeças. Since Santoro did not have an agent in North America, Ackerman contacted Santoro's father. He spent two months filming in Rome, alongside renowned actors such as Helen Mirren and Anne Bancroft. Soon after he finished shooting for Mrs. Stone, he received an offer from Columbia Pictures for a part in the blockbuster Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. His performance in Charlie's Angels kick-started his career in Hollywood. After Charlie's Angels, he played the character of Karl, the enigmatic chief designer and love interest of Laura Linney's character, in the romantic comedy Love Actually, which also features Colin Firth, Lucia Moniz, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley, and Rowan Atkinson.

He also started getting work in the advertising business as he appeared in a commercial campaign with Gisele Bündchen in 2002. He played the male lead in No. 5 The Film, the 3-minute-long commercial for Chanel, directed by Baz Luhrmann alongside Nicole Kidman in 2004.

In 2006, Santoro joined the cast of Lost as survivor of Oceanic Flight 815, Paulo. His first appearance was in episode titled, "Further Instructions". His character was killed off in the episode "Exposé". He also voices his character Paulo in the Portuguese dub for Brazil.

Santoro was cast as Persian emperor Xerxes in the film 300, based on the Frank Miller comic of the same name, in 2006. The role had many special requirements, such as intensive workout for the physicality of the role (Santoro had lost 24 pounds to work in a Brazilian miniseries), extensive CG work to portray the 6'2" Santoro as the 7-foot God-King, a four-and-a-half-hour makeup application process and the complete removal of Santoro's body hair first by waxing and then by shaving when that proved too painful. His eyebrows were kept intact, however, covered over with prosthetics and drawn in rather than being shaved. Santoro read the works of Herodotus, an Ancient Greek historian, in order to prepare for his part. Regarding Xerxes, he has stated:

He's rich, he's arrogant, he's a very unstable megalomaniac. He just wants to conquer the world. His ambition is unlimited. He wants glory; he wants victory; he wants eternal fame. Underneath all that wanting, though, he's ultimately weak and very insecure.

For his role on 300, Santoro became the first Brazilian actor nominated to the MTV Movie Awards in the category of Best Villain. He did not win however, and the award went to Jack Nicholson for The Departed.

He plays the late footballer Heleno de Freitas in the 2012 film Heleno. Santoro co-starred alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2013 film The Last Stand.

He played Garriga in the Will Smith drama film Focus (2015).

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1996	Depois do Escuro	Roberto
1998	Como Ser Solteiro	Himself
1999	O Trapalhão e a Luz Azul	Musketeer
1999	Stuart Little	Stuart Little	Voice (Brazilian dub)
2001	Bicho de Sete Cabeças	Wilson Souza Neto
2001	Abril Despedaçado	Tonho
2002	Stuart Little 2	Stuart Little	Voice (Brazilian dub)
2003	The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone	Young Man
2003	Carandiru	Lady Di
2003	Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle	Randy Emmers
2003	Love Actually	Karl
2004	A Dona da História	Luiz Cláudio
2007	300	Xerxes I
2007	Não por Acaso	Pedro
2008	Live, Love, Laugh, But...	Bellboy	Short film
2008	Os Desafinados	Joaquim
2008	Redbelt	Bruno Silva
2008	Leonera	Ramiro
2008	Che	Raul Castro
2009	I Love You Phillip Morris	Jimmy Kemple
2009	Post Grad	David Santiago
2010	Manual Para Se Defender de Alienígenas, Zumbis e Ninjas	Ninja	Short film
2010	There Be Dragons	Oriol
2011	Meu País	Marcos
2011	Rio	Túlio / Soccer Announcer	Voice
2012	Hemingway & Gellhorn	Zarra
2012	Heleno	Heleno de Freitas
2012	What To Expect When You're Expecting	Alex
2012	Reis e Ratos	Roni Rato
2013	The Last Stand	Frank Martinez
2013	Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury	Piatã / Júnior
2014	300: Rise of an Empire	Xerxes I
2014	Rio 2	Túlio	Voice
2014	Rio, I Love You	Ele
2015	Focus	Garriga
2015	The 33	Laurence Golborne
2016	Jane Got a Gun	Fitchum
2016	Ben-Hur	Jesus
2016	Dominion	Carlos	Post-producing
2016	Pelé: Birth of a Legend	Brazilian announcer

Television

Year	Soap operas	Role	Note
1993-94	Olho no Olho	Pedro	Main role
1994-95	Pátria Minha	Fernando	Main role
1995-96	Explode Coração	Sérgio	Main role
1996	Sai de Baixo	Gama	"O Sexo Nosso de Cada Dia" (Season 1, episode 6)
1996	Comédia da Vida Privada	Diogo	"Mulheres" (Season 2, episode 6)
1998	Hilda Furacão	Frei Malthus	Main role
1997	O Amor Está no Ar	Léo	Main role
1999	O Belo e as Feras	Henrique	"Só o Amor Destrói" (Season 1, episode 1)
1999	Suave Veneno	Eliseu Vieira	Main role
2001	Os Normais	Júlio	"Grilar é Normal" (Season 1, episode 19)
2001	Estrela-Guia	Carlos Charles Pimenta	Main role
2002	Pastores da Noite	Padre Gomes	Main role
2003	Mulheres Apaixonadas	Diogo Ribeiro Alves	Main role
2005	Hoje É Dia de Maria	Amado	Main role
2005	Hoje é Dia de Maria: Segunda Jornada	Dom Chico Chicote	Main role
2006	Lost	Paulo	Main role (Season 3)
2009	Som & Fúria	Sanjay	Main role
2010	Afinal, o Que Querem as Mulheres?	Rodrigo Santoro (ficcional version)	"Elas?" (Season 1, episode 3)
2010	Papai Noel Existe	Robson Luiz	Television special
2012	As Brasileiras	Carioca	"A Indomável do Ceará" (Season 1, episode 9)
2016	Velho Chico	Afrânio de Sá Ribeiro	Main role
2016	Westworld	Harlan Bell	Main role

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result
2000	Festival de Brasília	Best Actor for Bicho de Sete Cabeças	Won
2001	Recife Film Festival		Won
	Brazil Quality Award		Won
	Santo Domingo Film Festival		Won
	SESC Best Film Festival		Won
2002	Cinema Brazilian Grand Prix		Won
	APCA Trophy		Won
	Cartagena Film Festival		Won
	Cero Latitud Film Festival		Won
2003	Festival de Brasília	Best Actor for Carandiru	Won
2004	Cannes Film Festival	Chopard Trophy of Male Revelation	Won
2007	MTV Movie Awards	Best Villain for 300	Nominated
2011	Festival de Brasília	Best Actor for Meu País	Won
	Havana Film Festival	Best Actor for Heleno	Won
2012	Lima Film Festival		Won
	ALMA Awards	Best Actor for What to Expect When You're Expecting	Nominated

Other nominations and honors

• 2004: On People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful list 2004.
• 2006: 12th position on People Magazine's 2006 Sexiest Man Alive.
• 2008: 16th position on E!'s 2008 Sexiest man of the world

[ Source: Wikipedia ]