José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal (born April 2, 1975), known professionally as Pedro Pascal, is a Chilean-American actor. He is best known for portraying the roles of Oberyn Martell in the fourth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones and Javier Peña in the Netflix series Narcos.
Pascal was born in Santiago, Chile. Pascal's parents were Allende supporters, and they were involved in the opposition movement against the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile around the time of his birth. Because of this, soon after his birth, his family was granted political asylum in Denmark. He was raised in Orange County, California, and San Antonio, Texas. He has Spanish roots from a Basque grandfather and Majorcan grandmother. Pascal was involved in competitive swimming during these early years, taking part in the state championships in Texas at the age of 11, but immediately stopped competitive swimming after getting into drama class. He studied acting at the Orange County School of the Arts and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has been living in New York City for over 20 years. Pedro's younger brother Lucas Balmaceda is an actor in Chile.