American actor Carlos Bernard was born on October 12, 1962 in Evanston, Illinois. Of Polish and Spanish descent, he attended Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, before later receiving an MFA degree from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California. He began acting on stage, performing in different productions staged by the ACT, such as Good, As You Like It, The Diary of Anne Frank and The Cherry Orchard, and also appeared in other productions, notably the Los Angeles production of Scenes From an Execution. He made his film debut in 1996, playing a supporting role in the independent horror film The Killing Jar.
Bernard then played numerous guest roles on television, appearing in shows such as F/X: The Series, Night Man, Silk Stalkings, Sunset Beach, Walker, Texas Ranger and the daytime soap The Young and the Restless. Television films that he appeared in include Men in White, Babylon 5: A Call to Arms, 10:5 Apocalypse and Nurses. He also took on roles in many films, including The Colonel’s Last Flight, Mars and Beyond and Vegas, City of Dreams.
Bernard’s biggest television role to date, though, is as Tony Almeida in the action series 24. The third-in-command at the Counter Terrorist Unit, and is one of the few people that Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) still trusted. His character was written out in the show’s third season, much like many other characters, but was returned in the fourth season, only to be killed off in the fifth season. However, he returned to 24 in the seventh season, as one of the main antagonists of the show—although producers still leave that detail ambiguously.
-Carlos' last name is Papierski. Bernard is actually Carlos' middle name.
-Carlos is a big fan of the baseball team Chicago Cubs.
He is seen holding a cup with the Cubs logo on it in 24 Season 4.
-Carlos played a prank on co-star Mia Kirschner while filming Season 4 of 24. He called a couple of his cop friends to come to the set and arrest her for smoking marijuana outside her dressing room (which she wasn't). However the prank went too far when the police tried to take her down to the station, and then Carlos initiated a 'fake' fight with them. They ended up sorting it out, but Mia was unable to finish filming that day as she was quite shaken up.
-In 2005 and 2003, he was nominated by the Screen Actors Guild along with the cast of 24 for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.
-In 2005, Carlos was nominated for an Imagen Award as Best Supporting Actor for his work in 24.
1996 The Killing Jar
1997 Sunset Beach
Night Man
Silk Stalkings
F/X: The Series
1998 Men in White
1999 The Young and the Restless
Babylon 5: A Call to Arms
2000 The Colonel's Last Flight
Mars and Beyond
2001 24
Walker, Texas Ranger
Vegas, City of Dreams
2006 10.5: Apocalypse
24: The Game
2007 Nurses
2008 Alien Raiders
(on his favourite moments in 24)
-I love when the bomb went off, I think that was second season. I thought that was great, that they actually did that. And then they had Air Force One go down. The one thing I love about the show is they're not afraid to take risks and try something most shows would resolve. In other words, on another show, Air Force One would've been saved, would've been rescued. And on this show, it went down. So did the President. Those are moments that stick in my mind.
- My dad and my uncle were both in counter-intelligence, so I got a lot of info that way. My uncle, who has since passed away, was actually on the ground floor of the CIA, but was in the OS, which led into the CIA. My father was in counter-intelligence but didn't go into the CIA. It let me know what that world was really like to work in, which really helped me when we shot the pilot, to help build the character.
(on the effects of working on a show like 24)
-I do check people out a lot when I am getting on planes. There are certain situations where I feel a little odd, I'm definitely a little more suspicious.