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Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to an Italian carpenter/stagehand father from Naples, Italy, and an African-American opera singer mother from Alabama. His parents, working in Europe at the time of his birth, settled in Manhattan by the time he was 6, and that's where he grew up.

Coming from a theatrical background, it was, perhaps, inevitable that young Giancarlo would appear on stage sooner or later, and he did, at age 8, appearing on Broadway as a slave child in "Maggie Flynn" in 1966.

More Broadway work followed through the 1960s and early '70s, followed by some small roles in movies. TV work followed in the 1980s, with increasingly significant parts in a string of high-profile series until he became well-established as a character player both on TV and in a number of movies.

He came very much to the public's attention playing Agent Mike Giardello in the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) in 1998 and since then has rarely been off our screens.

(1981) Stage: Appeared in &quot;Merrily We Roll Along&quot; on Broadway. Musical. Written by <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0814227/?ref_=nmwrk">Stephen Sondheim</a>.

(1968) Stage: Appeared (Broadway debut) in &quot;Maggie Flynn&quot; on Broadway. Musical comedy.

Stage: Appeared in a production of &quot;Sacrilege&quot;. Also in cast: <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0000995/?ref_=nmwrk">Ellen Burstyn</a>.

Radio (PSA): &quot;Hip-Hop Literacy,&quot; Lyrical Knockout Entertainment

Music video: Appeared in <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0000467/?ref_=nmwrk">Don Johnson</a>&#39;s video &quot;Heartbeat&quot;

(4/08) Music video: Appeared in <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm1006024/?ref_=nmwrk">Alicia Keys</a>&#39; video &quot;Teenage Love Affair&quot; which is based on <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0000490/?ref_=nmwrk">Spike Lee</a>&#39;s film <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/title/tt0096054/?ref_=nmwrk">School Daze (1988)</a>.

(3/6/08-6/22/08) Stage: Appeared (as &quot;Gooper&quot;) in &quot;Cat on a Hot Tin Roof&quot; by <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0931783/?ref_=nmwrk">Tennessee Williams</a> on Broadway, Broadhurst Theatre, New York City.

Stage: Appeared in &quot;Lost in the Stars&quot; on Broadway. Musical.

Stage: Appeared in &quot;The Me Nobody Knows&quot; on Broadway.

Stage: Appeared in &quot;Don&#39;t Get God Started&quot; on Broadway. Musical.

Stage: Appeared in &quot;Seesaw&quot; on Broadway. Musical.

Music video: Appeared in the <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0267785/?ref_=nmwrk">Mylène Farmer</a> video &quot;California&quot;.

Other works

Giancarlo Esposito

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