Piolo José Nonato Pascual (born January 12, 1977, in Manila, Philippines) is Filipino actor, model, musician(The Hunks), and film producer. Since the beginning, he has been a long-time contract actor with ABS-CBN. Pascual's early film credits include a brief appearance as Jussi Leino in The Vizconde Massacre Story: God Help Us (1993) and a supporting part in Batang PX (1997). His first big cinema break was the title role in Lagarista (2000) where he received his first Gawad Urian nomination (Best Actor). Lagarista was also exhibited in the Toronto, Pusan and Hongkong film festivals. In 2003, Pascual achieved a rare grand slam feat by playing the role of Jules Bartolome opposite Vilma Santos and Christopher de Leon, in Dekada '70. He collected a total of eight awards from all the existing award-giving bodies at that time in the Best Supporting Actor category starting with the Metro Manila Film Festival in December 2002 and culminating with the Gawad Urian in May 2003. Dekada '70 was the Philippine entry for the Best Foreign Film Language category in the 76th Academy Awards in 2004. In addition, Dekada '70 (together with Milan and Panaghoy sa Suba) was also exhibited in the New Cinema of the World section of the Cannes Film Festival in May 2005. Pascual is a long-time member of ABS-CBN's Star Magic and is an exclusive contract artist of ABS-CBN, Star Records, and Star Cinema. He celebrated his 10th year anniversary in 2007 with a coffee table book (Piolo: Believing), a fifth solo album (Timeless), and a second major solo concert at the Araneta Coliseum (Ten: Piolo). Pascual turned producer for the first time via Manila, an independent twinbill film that pays homage to Lino Brocka's Jaguar and Ishmael Bernal's Manila By Night. After its world premiere at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in May 2009, Manila will have its Philippines premiere in July 2009 as the opening film of the 5th Cinemalaya Film Festival.
