Nico Santos is a Filipino-American actor and comedian known for portraying Oliver T'sien in Crazy Rich Asians and sales associate Mateo Liwanag in the NBC series Superstore. For the latter, Santos was twice consecutively nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
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Early life
Santos was born in Manila, Philippines. Santos moved with his family to the United States when he was sixteen, settling in Gresham, Oregon. He and his brother attended Gresham's Centennial High School. In his junior year, he attended the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's summer seminar for high school students, where he discovered his love for theater.
Santos attended Southern Oregon University because of its proximity to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He studied acting there before switching to costume design due to discouraging remarks from his acting teacher. He came out as gay, his family refused to continue paying for his education, and he dropped out.
Career
Santos worked for several years in the costume department as a dresser at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
In 2001, he moved to San Francisco, where he worked at various luxury retail stores in Union Square for eight years while doing comedy, often going to open mics after work. He later moved to Los Angeles in pursuit of a stand-up career, but found it difficult to advance due to comedy club politics.
In 2012, he started appearing regularly on Chelsea Lately, a late-night talk show, as a panelist; he also worked as a restaurant host.
Santos shifted back to acting in 2014. He landed a spot as a writer in the annual CBS Diversity Showcase, which is presented to a agents, casting directors, and other industry professionals. He did some acting after another Asian actor dropped out.
This got him invited to more auditions. In fall 2015, he debuted on the NBC comedy television show Superstore, playing Mateo Liwanag, a gay, undocumented Filipino, often mistaken as Mexican, retail store associate.
Santos performed at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival in 2017.
He had a supporting role, Oliver, in the 2018 romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians.
In spring 2019, Santos appeared in the Off-Broadway play Happy Talk, written by Jesse Eisenberg and directed by Scott Elliott.
In June 2022, Santos was cast in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as Recorder Theel.
Personal life
Santos is gay and married to Zeke Smith, who participated on the 33rd (Millennials vs. Gen X) and 34th (Game Changers) editions of the CBS reality game show Survivor.
The couple met in April 2018 at the GLAAD Media Awards. Queerty named Santos one of the Pride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people."
Santos's parents were undocumented before becoming citizens. Santos's mother is supportive of his career and has often attended his open-mic performances.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Santos' mother and stepfather contracted the virus. His stepfather died while his mother recovered.