Jorge Garcia

Jorge Garcia's large stature and larger personality made him a star long before he was cast on the hit TV series Lost. Even while he was growing up in Southern California, the charismatic young man was well liked by both his peers and his elders, even taking home the "Triton of the Year" award at his high-school graduation, an honor bestowed by the faculty to the class' most outstanding senior. He then enrolled at UCLA, majoring in Communications, but a guest lecture by Dustin Hoffman changed his direction. Hoffman told a story about Sir Laurence Olivier describing the acting bug as a feeling of "Look at me, look at me, look at me!" Garcia couldn't help but relate to the idea, so he began to pursue a career in acting and standup comedy.Success didn't come easily, though, and Garcia spent six years working at a bookstore, scoring occasional parts in commercials. Slowly but surely, however, the more substantial roles started coming. Along with appearances on shows like Spin City and Columbo, Garcia nabbed a recurring role on the sitcom Becker, making several appearances over the next six years. Then in 2004, he played a drug dealer in an episode of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm and caught the attention of ABC producers, who were in the initial stages of casting a new show called Lost. They brought Garcia in to read for the part of Sawyer, which would later go to Josh Holloway, but eventually decided to create the role of Hurley specifically for Garcia. The innovative show was a mystery thriller with a sci-fi twist, and the honest, funny, and totally unpretentious character of Hurley would become wildly popular with fans, making the 31-year-old actor an instant star.Garcia moved to Hawaii, where Lost was filmed, and continued to pursue other projects while he wasn't filming the series. He appeared in the independent drama Little Athens in 2005, and in 2006 he signed on to the Matthew Broderick Christmas comedy Deck the Halls. - Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide