Joe Manganiello is an actor whose career spans genres, with roles in superhero movies, but also rom-coms, action, and fantasy. His big break came with a werewolf role in HBO’s True Blood, and Manganiello continued acting ever since, and has just scored a major role.
Joe Manganiello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and began his acting career while he was a student at Carnegie Mellon University, appearing in different productions in Pittsburgh’s theater scene. His devotion to acting led to a move to Los Angeles after graduation, where he quickly scored a talent agent, and auditioned for the role of Peter Parker/ Spider-Man in Sam Raimi’s 2002’s Spider-Man. As we now know, Manganiello didn’t get to portray the friendly neighborhood webslinger, but landed the role of Parker’s high school nemesis, Eugene “Flash” Thompson, a role he reprised in 2007’s Spider-Man 3.
Then in 2009, Manganiello was cast in the third season of HBO’s True Blood as werewolf Alcide Herveaux, a recurring role. Alcide became a main character starting in season 4, with Manganiello electrifying audiences up until the show’s finale in season 7. His love for the superhero world continued, and he did a screen test for Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, a role that eventually went to Henry Cavill. He eventually did score a role in the DCEU as Slade Wilson/ Deathstroke, making his first appearance in 2017’s Justice League. He also played Richie in 2012’s Magic Mike and its 2015 sequel, Magic Mike XXL, a role he briefly reprised in 2023’s Magic Mike’s Last Dance.
When it comes to his personal life, Manganiello’s most famous partner was his former wife, Sofia Vergara, from whom he separated in 2023 after seven years of marriage. Since September 2023, he has been dating actress Caitlin O’Connor.
Joe Manganiello was shocked to discover his roots
The actor’s mother, Susan, is of Croatian, German, and Armenian descent, while his father, Charles, was born in Massachusetts. In 2023, Manganiello appeared on the celebrity-filled PBS series Finding Your Roots hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., in episode six of season 9, “Family: Lost and Found,” which aired on Feb. 7, 2023.
In the episode, the researches discovered Manganiello’s legal paternal grandfather, Emilio Manganiello, was not his biological grandfather. Instead, his true roots were African-American. They found out that his biological grandparents were William Henry Cutler and Nellie Alton, and the episode further delved into his ancestry, finding out that one of his ancestors, Plato Turner, was an enslaved African man freed before slavery was abolished in Massachusetts. His maternal great-grandmother, Terviz “Rose” Darakjian, had survived the Armenian genocide. Initially, they had believed Manganiello was of Italian descent, if Emilio were his true grandfather. In October 2022, in fact, before appearing on Finding Your Roots, Manganiello was officially recognized as an Italian Citizen.
After finding out his roots, Manganiello told Today.com the information “opened up this whole world,” and that it was the beginning of his genealogy exploration, not the end. He explained he hired other historians, and “fleshed out the entire family tree,” and had found “very, very close family members.”
Most recently, the actor appeared alongside Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson in the 2023 crime comedy The Kill Room, and has been recently cast in Netflix’s One Piece in a major role, as Mr. O.