Call the police! Pedro Pascal has stolen my heart and won’t give it back! You think I’m kidding, but I’m totally serious. I am so taken with the Chilean-born actor, whose full name is José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal, that I will watch anything he’s in even if it’s in a genre I usually avoid. Case in point: The Last of Us, which premiered its second season on April 13, 2025, has me in a choke hold even though I normally avoid anything that is about surviving in a post-apocalyptic world.
The thing is that Pedro makes even a post-apocalyptic world seem like one I would want to live in if he’s there and I swear it’s because he infuses his characters with a certain yo no sé qué that is mesmerizing. Then there’s the charm that he exudes when he’s just being himself that makes him even more likeable. Even with a mask fully covering his face, like in The Mandalorian, I was crushing hard.
It’s not right that someone should be so freakin’ likeable, so I dug deep to find details about him in the hopes that I would find something, anything, that might make me like him less, but guess what? It’s not possible, even the most shocking details about him add to his appeal. See for yourself, but be warned, the more you know, the more you’ll like him!
He was born in Chile and became a political refugee as a baby.
Pedro was born on April 2, 1975 to fertility doctor José Balmaceda Riera and child psychologist Verónica Pascal Ureta during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Both of his parents were considered enemies of the state, which led them to make the difficult decision to seek refuge at the Venezuelan embassy in Santiago, Chile, when Pedro was a baby.
He shared his family's story on 'SNL.'
“I was born in Chile and nine months later, my family had to escape Pinochet and brought me and my sisters to the United States. They were very brave and without them I would not be in this wonderful country,” Pedro shared when he hosted Saturday Night Live.
He was a competitive swimmer while living in Texas.
His family found refuge in Denmark before making their way to the United States and settling in Texas. While in Texas and before catching the acting bug, he was an award-winning swimmer. Vanity Fair asked him if he would ever consider getting back into swimming and he said no because he’s “too lazy.” Phew, I would much rather watch him play a competitive swimmer than lose him to the sport.
After moving to California, Pedro fell in love with acting.
His family moved from Texas to California, where Pedro started taking acting classes. He ended up going to a prestigious arts high school and was later accepted to the renowned Tish School of the Arts at New York University.
He met actress Sarah Paulson while he was studying at Tish.
Pedro was studying at Tish and started hanging out with some recent grads of LaGuardia High and Sarah was one of them. They have been close ever since and it’s adorable to see them on each other’s Instagram accounts.
He is a distant cousin of Isabel Allende.
When I read that Pedro’s mother was the niece of Andres Pascal Allende, son of President Salvador Allende (overthrown by Pinochet), I asked Google if Pedro is related to the Chilean writer Isabel Allende because I know that she is related to those particular Allendes. He is! They are distant cousins. How cool is that?!
He used to be a go-go dancer!
Before he hit it big as an actor, he worked as a go-go dancer in a club in Madrid while studying abroad. He would shake his moneymaker to get the party going while rocking silver hair. “I did not take my clothes off, but I danced and wore silver hair,” he said in an interview.
He was a terrible waiter.
Despite being a great actor, Pedro can’t play the part of a good waiter in real life. He worked as a waiter while he was trying to make it as an actor, but he admits to not being good at it. He was so not good at it that he was fired often. When asked how many times he was fired as a waiter, he said, “Upwards of, I don’t know maybe close to 10 times.”
He changed his name to honor his mother.
His first acting credits were as Pedro Balmaceda. In 2000, his mother died by suicide. That heartbreaking loss inspired him to adopt her last name and he officially became Pedro Pascal. “She was the love of my life. I think about her every day. I don’t pray, so I can’t say that I have a [religious] practice to feel her close to me, but I live for her even though she’s gone,” he explained in an interview to one of his cousins.
His sister, Lux, is trans.
In 2021, Pedro’s sister Lux Pascal came out as trans. She has credited him not only for his support, but also for being the most “important part” of her transition journey. Pedro told Esquire: “She is and has always been one of the most powerful people and personalities.”
It seems he has a secret TikTok account.
He was interviewed on the Oscars red carpet by Ashley Graham in 2023 and the conversation went like this:
“People on TikTok love you — do you have a TikTok?,” Ashley asked.
“I have … no I don’t,” Pedro replied while laughing, before adding, “I have a secret one.”
He has 34 cousins and is in a chat group with them.
The chat group is called “Sinvergüenzas” and while 34 cousins may seem like a lot to some, if you’re Latino, it’s just not that weird. I’m pretty sure I have more than 34 cousins so all that does is make him even more relatable to me. However, I would not attempt to name them all like he did. Kudos for him for getting up to 23.
Pedro is a Nick Cage superfan.
In a case of art imitating life, Pedro was cast to play Javi, a Nick Cage superfan in the film The Unberable Weight of Massive Talent. “I saw all of Nicolas Cage’s movies when I was younger. I’m talking about all of them: Rumble Fish, Valley Girl, Racing With the Moon, Birdy, Peggy Sue Got Married. Raising Arizona had a tremendous impact on me. The movie, his performance and it just goes on from there,” Pedro said in a behind-the-scenes video for the movie.
He checks out fan accounts when he’s feeling low.
“Do you ever look at Instagram accounts devoted to you being a heartthrob when you’re feeling down?” Pedro was asked while strapped to a polygraph machine by Vanity Fair. “Yes, I do,” he said then threw his head back and laughed semi-maniacally. Of course, he does. I get it because I look at Pedro Pascal fan accounts when I’m feeling down, too. They always make me feel better.
He recently made headlines for his crazy coffee order.
Pedro consumes an obscene amount of espresso every morning. A picture of him holding his coffee order was taken by a paparazzo and when you zoom in on the picture, you can see that Pedro ordered what amounts to six shots of espresso.
“It was an incredibly private morning ritual that I never wanted anyone to know about,” he told Jimmy Kimmel. But don’t worry about his caffeine intake as he assured Jimmy that he has no more coffee the rest of the day.
He deals with anxiety in a touching way.
Pedro can often be seen on red carpets posting with his hand on his lower chest like in this clip where he with his Last of Us co-star Bella Ramsey. When she notices him doing it, she sort of follows suit and he explains to her that he puts his hand there because that’s where he feels his anxiety.
I’m sorry, but how can you not love a man who is vulnerable enough to publicly share that he experiences anxiety?
