Amaury Nolasco was born on December 24, 1970 in Puerto Rico. Here, he spent his early years, eventually studying biology at the University of Puerto Rico with an intention to pursue a medicine career. After several acting gigs, however, he decided to pursue an acting career; he moved to New York City and underwent training at the American British Dramatic Arts School.
His first credited screen credit came in 1999, when he had a guest appearance in the sitcom Arli$$. (His first screen gig was an uncredited bit role in the 1997 film Fall.) This was followed by other guest roles in television shows such as Early Edition, The Huntress, CSI, ER and George Lopez. His early film credits include Brother, The Librarians and Mr. 3000. His first major supporting role was in 2 Fast 2 Furious, where he played the racer Orange Julius. After other guest roles in Eve and CSI: New York, he was given a role in the television series Prison Break. His character, Fernando Sucre, a cellmate of Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller), initially doesn’t want to be involved in his escape attempt. Later on, however, he becomes loyal to Michael, and assists him in the escape; he keeps a strong friendship with Michael, and helps him in another escape attempt. His performances on the series earned him two Best Supporting Actor nominations from the ALMA Awards, which give honor to performers of Latin descent.
During his stint on Prison Break, Nolasco starred in the 2006 comedy film The Benchwarmers. The following year, he rose to mainstream recognition when he was cast in the action film Transformers. He plays the role of Jorge Figueroa, a soldier at the SOCCENT base who survived an attack from the Decepticons. He assists his fellow soldiers William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson) in fighting the rogue robots.
He was recently included in the prestigious list of the 26 guys to watch in 2004 published by USA Today, alongside such talents as Justin Timberlake, Ashton Kutcher, Josh Harnett and Jake Gyllenhaal, to name a few.