Matias Varela


Louis Matias Karl Padin Varela is a Swedish actor of Spanish descent.

Early life

Varela was born and grew up in Södermalm on the south side of Stockholm. Both parents are from Galicia and he did not learn Swedish until he started school. During middle school, he became friends with Gustaf Skarsgård, son of internationally noted Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård. Varela did not then know of the famous Skarsgård family because he mostly watched Spanish satellite television. When his friend Skarsgård applied to a selective upper secondary school, Södra Latin’s drama program near where both boys lived, Varela wanted to do the same. The elder Skarsgård gave the young Varela a few hours of acting instructions and he was accepted by the school. Varela said he was surprised, because he had shown up in a track suit and looked more like a chav than an aspiring actor.

Career

After a brief appearance in the soap opera Nya tider, he left Sweden for a while and on returning worked as a construction worker with small acting jobs for a sideline. After reading the bestselling Swedish crime novel Snabba Cash and hearing that a film production company Tre Vänner was adapting the book for the big screen he set his sights on starring as the Swedish-Chilean drug dealer Jorge Salinas. Varela convinced the director Daniel Espinosa to give him a screen test. Espinosa, who himself is of Chilean descent, had stated he wanted someone with roots in Chile, and Varela would eventually land the role.
Easy Money was a success and Varela went on to star in both sequels: ' and '. He also got the part of Police Detective Jorge Chavez in the big budget TV-series Arne Dahl. In series 2 Alexander Salzberger replaced him.
Varela had his first international role in an episode of Covert Affairs as a Basque terrorist. In 2013 he was in several episodes of Showtime's The Borgias in the prominent part of Ferdinand II of Naples.
Among his projects in 2015 and 2016 were Johan Renck's quirky crime drama Ettor och nollor alongside his old friend Gustaf Skarsgård, the 2015 remake Point Break, and the video game adaptation Assassin's Creed, with Michael Fassbender.
In 2017, he starred as Jorge Salcedo Cabrera, the head of security for the Cali Cartel in season three of the Netflix series Narcos. His performance was widely singled out by critics and fans alike as among the best in the series. In 2020, he reprised the role in the second season of .
His upcoming projects are 477 dagar co-starring again with Dani Mengilo, based on the true story of two Swedish journalists who spent over year in an Ethiopian prison; Fartblinda a Swedish TV-series set in the world of finance;, and American independent film Heavy with Game of Thrones's Sophie Turner.
In 2020, he is slated to star in HBO Max's Raised by Wolves by director Ridley Scott and Scott Free Productions, co-starring with Travis Fimmel of Vikings fame.