Santiago Cabrera

"I just thought it was a fantastic part to play Lancelot, it's like, he's such an epic character."

- Santiago on his character, Lancelot

Santiago Cabrera (b. 5th of May, 1978) is a Chilean actor who portrayed the titular character in the episode Lancelot. His character also returns in Lancelot and Guinevere, The Coming of Arthur: Part Two. His character dies in The Darkest Hour and briefly returns in Lancelot du Lac (and dies again). He also plays the Shade which impersonated Lancelot.

Early life
The middle child of a Chilean diplomat father and homemaker mother, Cabrera was born in the city of Caracas, Venezuela. Santiago grew up in London, Romania, Toronto and Madrid. His family returned to Chile when he was fifteen years old and as a captain of the football team in high school, Cabrera focused on athletics before switching gears; he headed towards acting when his high school drama teacher encouraged him to try it. During his three years of training at the Drama Centre London, Cabrera honed his acting skills in productions of The Madras House, A Month in the Country, Napoli Milionaria, Britannicus, The Dutch Courtesan, The Strangeness of Others, A Field, Three Birds Alighting On, and played the title character in The Last Days of Don Juan.

Concurrent with his final year at the Centre, he made his television debut with small roles in the British television series Battlefield Britain, Judge John Deed, Spooks and As If. His first role after graduating from drama school was Montano in Shakespeare's Othello, at the Northampton Theatre Royal. He has also starred in the 2006 american film, Love and Other Disasters, alongside Brittany Murphy and Matthew Rhys.

He has appeared on American television in Empire where he portrays Octavius, Julius Caesar's teenage nephew, whom Caesar named as his successor before his death. Most notably, he is known for his role as Isaac Mendez in the NBC series Heroes. Once the character's arc ended, he narrated some episodes of the BBC's spin-off documentary series Heroes Unmasked. He also had a one episode cameo in the axed American television series, Alcatraz as Jimmy Dickens in the pilot episode.

In addition to his fluency in Spanish, English, French and Italian, Cabrera is skilled in tennis, hockey and scuba diving. On the January 20, 2007 episode of the NBC late-night program Vivo Mun2, Cabrera discussed his semi-professional football career in London before he fully committed to acting. He also stated that C.D. Universidad Católica of Santiago is his favourite team. Although he considers Santiago, Chile, his hometown, he splits his time between London and Los Angeles.

On 7 September 2008, Cabrera participated in Soccer Aid, a British charity football match in support of UNICEF.

In May 2012, Julian Murphy confirmed that Cabrera will not reprise his role as Lancelot or participate at all in Merlin Series 5.

Trivia

 * Santiago didn't originally plan on becoming an actor, he had planned on becoming a soccer star and played soccer for 3 years on a scholarship before switching to acting.
 * Before Series 4, Cabrera was speculated by fans to replace Anthony Head in the Series 4 credits as the series went on but it was revealed in the second episode of Series 4 that his character Lancelot dies before being revived for Morgana's dark deeds seven episodes later in the episode Lancelot du Lac only to be killed again.
 * Before acting, he was a rickshaw driver in London.
 * He studied at the Drama Centre London with Bradley James (who plays King Arthur).
 * Before going to Drama School, Santiago played semi-pro soccer in London.

Gallery
Santiago Cabrera