Why Chris Marcos From Renfield Looks So Familiar

While it draws from the classic "Dracula" novel by Bram Stoker and the mythos it inspired, "Renfield" changes its Dracula somewhat, altering certain classic vampire rules for Nicholas Cage's depiction of the character. Of course, whereas the original "Dracula" story takes place in the 1800s, "Renfield" is set in contemporary New Orleans, taking a page from influential vampire author Anne Rice's playbook.

Nicholas Hoult stars as Renfield, whose story provides the film with its dramatic weight. Contributing to its modern setting is Rebecca (Awkwafina), a traffic cop who helps Renfield self-actualize and free himself from his servitude to Dracula. Rebecca's work as a traffic cop, instead of, say, some sort of powerful FBI investigator feels intentionally low stakes, contrasting with the supernatural superpowers Dracula wields.

Chris Marcos is another traffic cop who works with Rebecca. Perhaps even more so than his counterpart, he comes off as an altogether normal dude, and not someone viewers might expect to become enmeshed in a power struggle with a legendary monster. If Chris looks familiar, it's because Adrian Martinez, who portrays him, has acted in more than 100 roles since his on-screen debut in the 1990s.

While Adrian Martinez's career may have kicked off in 1993, it wasn't until the next couple of decades that he would start more regularly appearing in roles consisting of more than just a few lines. Among some of the more impactful characters he's played over the course of his career is Hernando in Ben Stiller's 2013 dramedy "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."

Stiller portrays the titular Walter Mitty, who works for Life magazine and eventually sets off on an adventure to track down a photographer with a photograph key to the magazine's final print issue. Of course, that photograph isn't as important as the journey Walter undertakes to secure it. Hernando, meanwhile, works with Walter at Life as his understudy. While he may not accompany Walter on his globe-spanning adventure, he helps plan out its early stages, and remains a supportive presence remotely along the way.

In 2015, Will Smith starred in the 2015 crime movie "Focus," whose directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa previously led the production of "Crazy, Stupid, Love," and have since gone onto create the spy show "Rabbit Hole" for Paramount+.

Smith plays a conman named Nicky Spurgeon in "Focus." The events of the film kick off when he one day encounters another scammer, Jess Barrett (Margot Robbie), whom he essentially decides to pursue romantically under the guise of teaching her to improve her craft. As the more experienced scammer, by the time he meets Jess, Nicky already works with a number of fellow conmen, one of whom is named Farhad and played by Adrian Martinez. In the first half of the film, Farhad is key to a Super Bowl scam through which Nicky ultimately wins back a large sum of money he previously lost to rival Liyuan Tse (B.D. Wong).

"The Blacklist" Season 3, Episode 22, titled "Alexander Kirk," revolves around a relatively new character named Susan Hargrave (Famke Janssen) and her partnership with secret agent Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold). Their storyline in this episode serves as backdoor pilot for a spinoff series titled "The Blacklist: Redemption," which these two characters lead.

This "Blacklist" episode also marks the debut of Adrian Martinez as Dumont DeSoto, a skilled hacker. In both her "Blacklist" run and her spinoff, Susan heads a secret organization called Halcyon Aegis, and leads a team called Grey Matters in charge of some of the government's most covert undercover work. "Redemption" only lasted for a single season that aired for eight episodes in the first half of 2017. As a member of the Grey Matters team, Martinez appears in each of these episodes, amounting to his longest-running role on a serial drama at the time of its conclusion, and his second-longest TV tenure to this day.

While his roles in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," "Focus," and "The Blacklist" are arguably among the most important of his career, it's entirely possible that viewers might, rather, recognize Adrian Martinez from one of his multitude of appearances on major TV series, in big-budget films, and even an ad campaign for State Farm.

Martinez kicked off his growing body of TV work with a role in an episode of 1990s true crime series "America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back." Also in the 90s and continuing into the 2000s, he appeared in single episodes or short runs of shows like "NYPD Blue," "The Sopranos," "Sex and the City," "Law & Order," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "Delocated," and "Flight of the Conchords." Since then he's also played bit parts in well-known films and TV shows including "Kick-Ass," "How to Make It in America," "Law & Order: SVU," "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," "Gotham," "Inside Amy Schumer," and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Also on TV, Martinez acted opposite NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers in a State Farm commercial, in which he wears the signature Green Bay Packers fan Cheesehead hat. If Martinez looks at all familiar, then, it's entirely possible that it's from one or more of his brief appearances in this range of widely-viewed film and TV projects.

One of Adrian Martinez's most recent works prior to his part in "Renfield" is his role as Tookie Alvarez on ABC drama "Stumptown." The show's title is a nickname for Portland, Oregon, which serves as its setting and an altogether important contributor to its overall vibe.

Cobie Smulders stars as ex-Marine Dex Parios, whose work as a private investigator is the series' focus. Tookie, meanwhile, both operates a food truck and helps Dex with her investigative work. Oftentimes Tookie simply shares information with Dex, but occasionally he gets his hands dirty too, like an early episode in which he poses as a janitor to help steal some key documents.

"Stumptown" aired for a single, 18-episode season through the end of 2019 and 2020. Martinez is credited in all of these episodes, making Tookie the biggest role of his career in terms of screentime, and one of his signature characters as of his "Renfield" appearance.