Édgar Filiberto Ramírez Arellano (Spanish pronunciation: , born 25 March 1977) is a Venezuelan actor. Ramírez studied communications at the Andrés Bello Catholic University. He then worked in media and considered becoming a diplomat. When Guillermo Arriaga praised a short film he had done, he decided to pursue his performing hobby as a career. He played Carlos the Jackal in the 2010 biopic series Carlos, a role for which he won the César Award for Most Promising Actor at the 2011 César Awards, and was nominated for a Golden Globe and Emmy Award for Best Actor. He also played Larry, a CIA operative in the film Zero Dark Thirty, Paz—a CIA assassin—in The Bourne Ultimatum, and boxer Roberto Durán in Hands of Stone. Ramírez won at the 2012 ALMA Awards for Ares in Wrath of the Titans. He received several award nominations for his portrayal of Gianni Versace in the 2018 miniseries The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. In 2020, he had a recurring role in the HBO miniseries The Undoing. In 2022, Ramírez was part of the Un Certain Regard jury at the Cannes Film Festival.
Early life
Ramírez was born in San Cristóbal, Táchira, Venezuela, the son of Soday Arellano, an attorney, and Filiberto Ramírez, a military officer. He has a sister named Nataly and a niece and nephew named Enrique and Maria Camilla. Part of his childhood was spent traveling in different countries; he speaks Spanish, English, French, Italian and German fluently.
Ramírez graduated in 1999 from the Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas with a degree in mass communication, minoring in audiovisual communications, although he intended to pursue international relations. While in college he worked as an emerging journalist, reporting on politics. Later, he became executive director of Dale al Voto, a Venezuelan foundation . He and his team created campaigns for radio, television and movie theaters. However, he was always attracted to the performing arts and while in college was involved with the arts. Ramírez was in charge of international promotions of the Viart Film Festival. "I'll be lying if I told you I dreamed about becoming an actor as a kid. But I wasn't in any different to the world of performing arts. I was always very attracted to it. I just never thought about it as a career." Ramírez passed it up, as he was in the middle of his thesis and was to attend Harvard National Model UN that year as a delegate from his school. Ramírez then decided to pursue his acting interests.