Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada was born in Guatemala to a Guatemalan mother, María Eugenia, and a Cuban father, Oscar Gonzalo Hernández-Cano, a pulmonologist. He was raised in Miami, Florida. Prior to his acting career, Isaac was the lead guitarist and vocalist for his band, the Blinking Underdogs. He graduated from the Juilliard School in 2005.
Isaac's early film roles included Joseph in The Nativity Story (2006) and a small part in All About the Benjamins (2002). He also appeared in the Ché Guevara biopic Guerrilla (2011) and had a guest role on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001). He went on to appear in The Life Before Her Eyes (2007),Body of Lies (2008),alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, Agora (2009),alongside Rachel Weisz, and Balibo (2009),where he played José Ramos-Horta, the former president of East Timor, set during the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975. For his role in Balibo, Isaac won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 2013, Isaac starred in the Coen Brothers' folk music-themed comedy-drama Inside Llewyn Davis (2013),earning a Golden Globe Award nomination. He went on to star in the crime drama A Most Violent Year (2014) and the science fiction thriller Ex Machina (2014),and appeared in the Star Wars films Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017),as X-wing pilot Poe Dameron, as well as the ninth X-Men film, X-Men: Apocalypse (2016),as the mutant supervillain Apocalypse. He also headlined the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero (2015),as politician Nick Wasicsko, earning him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film.
Isaac is married to Danish director Elvira Lind, with whom he has two sons. He is also long-time friends with Triple Frontier (2019) co-star Pedro Pascal.
