Chris Diamantopoulos

By the age of nine, Chris Diamantopoulos already knew what a professional film set was like.

He started out in TV commercials in Canada because his parents wanted him to learn the value of hard work. But young Chris found in entertainment a different path from the family restaurant business. Before turning twenty, he had already performed on stages across half the world in Broadway productions.

His time in Les Misérables and The Full Monty gave him an enviable technical foundation. So he decided to move to Los Angeles to try his luck in television and mainstream film.

And the gamble paid off.

In 2005, he played Robin Williams in the TV movie Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy. That role caught the attention of casting directors for his ability to mimic other people's body language. He was not going for parody but for an exact re-creation of the character.

The Risk of Imitating Legends

The Farrelly brothers were looking for someone who could bring Moe Howard to life on the big screen. Chris auditioned with his bowl haircut already in place and an aggressive attitude that immediately convinced the producers. He landed the lead role in The Three Stooges in 2012 after a casting process that lasted years.

The movie received mixed reviews, but Diamantopoulos's physical work was applauded by the heirs of the original comedians. Still, the actor did not want to be typecast in slapstick comedy.

No one recognized the actor under the makeup.

In 2013, Disney was looking for a new voice for its most famous mouse. Chris avoided imitating the high-pitched versions of his predecessors and aimed for a more mischievous, classic tone reminiscent of the 1930s. He recorded more than one hundred episodes of the Mickey Mouse shorts until 2019 and remained linked to the brand in later projects.

The Billion-Dollar Garage

The role that changed how adult audiences saw him didn't involve makeup or cartoon voices. In 2015, he joined the cast of Silicon Valley to play Russ Hanneman. The eccentric investor obsessed with the three percentage points of his fortune became an internet phenomenon.

Many viewers believed the actor was actually a tech millionaire because of how natural he seemed on screen. But Chris is a laid-back guy who lives far from the spotlight of Silicon Valley. The show's success allowed him to choose projects with greater creative freedom in the American industry.

In 2021, he appeared in the Netflix blockbuster Red Notice alongside Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot. He played Sotto Voce with an indecipherable accent that he designed himself for the character. That same year, he worked on the series True Story, where he showed a much darker and more violent register opposite Kevin Hart.

The industry prefers to keep his private life anonymous.

During 2023, he worked under George Clooney in the movie The Boys in the Boat. In 2024, he joined the cast of the thriller The Man in the White Van and took part in the Christmas comedy Our Little Secret. His contract for the production of 2024 included specific confidentiality clauses regarding the use of his image in digital settings.