Why Angel Torres From Nope Looks So Familiar

The latest Jordan Peele film, "Nope," tells the story of remote ranch owners in the American West that begin to experience several strange events, like bizarre cloud formations, ominous noises, and objects falling from the sky. The trailer for the film shows these events befalling the characters played by Steven Yeun, Keke Palmer, and Daniel Kaluuya, setting up the stakes for the movie — particularly when Yeun's character promises a tremendous spectacle to a group of onlookers. 

Another important character in the film is Angel Torres, a tech salesmen and specialist that agrees to help uncover the unnerving events of "Nope." Speaking with Syfy, the actor who plays Angel spoke about how his character was originally intended to be somewhat bubbly and enthusiastic, but he did not play the character that way in his audition. Instead, he took it in his own direction, much to the delight of Peele, and he said, "Jordan's support characters all give such a grounded performance where they seem so real in the world, where you're just like that person exists somewhere. I was like, let me bring it to a place that I can understand from the characters that I've seen in those spaces. And that's what I delivered him in the performance and Jordan loved it." 

That actor, Brandon Perea, came at "Nope" with some serious experience and insight, changing the movie for the better. Here's why he looks so familiar.

Perhaps the first place that viewers may have gotten a chance to see Brandon Perea in action was slightly different than having to deal with science-fiction horrors of the sort in "Nope." That's because he appeared in the 2016 YouTube movie, "Dance Camp." 

Starring Nadji Jeter, Jake Paul, Jordyn Jones, Meg, DeAngelis, Richard Balin, the YouTube exclusive movie focuses on Jeter's character of Hunter, who is sent to a dance camp to spend his summer. He quickly learns though that his fellow campers are just as unique and interesting as himself, and he quickly falls in with a dance group in order to dethrone the reigning champion Lance (Paul). Perea plays the role of Kenton, one of the fellow campers in "Dance Camp." 

Perea must have had a great time while filming the movie, because in October 2015, he took to Twitter to say, "I had a dream about 'Dance Camp' last night and woke up disappointed because we're wrapped!" Perea's sweet dance moves must have paid off, because he quickly moved from YouTube to a Netflix original series.

Appearing in the 2016 Netflix series "The OA," Brandon Perea played the role of Alfonso Sosa, also known as French. "The OA" ran for two seasons, but the series was canceled in 2019, ending on — sadly — somewhat of a cliffhanger. 

"The OA" follows the character of Prairie Johnson (Brit Marling), who now calls herself "OA" after going missing for seven years and reemerging. Before her originally unexplained disappearance, she was visually impaired, but on her return, she is miraculously able to see, and has strange scars on her back. Several friends and accomplices convene to help Johnson piece together her life, and Perea's character of French is important to this process.

In an interview with Contrast, Perea spoke about what drew him to the character by saying, "I was interested because French isn't really like me, and ultimately it's something different than my everyday life. Seeing his story made me realize there are a lot of people that go through what he's going through, trying to impress their families and not getting the love they want to receive from their hard work. And having to struggle every day in order to get that praise or at least a thank you." 

Although "The OA" was canceled, fans still hope for a continuation — and the end of the series certainly didn't slow down Perea's career.

Brandon Perea's next venture that fans may recognize is in DC's "Doom Patrol." This particular show, about a ragtag group of unlikely heroes that are exceptionally varied and eclectic — which stars Diane Guerrero, Brendan Fraser, Riley Shanahan, Matt Bomer, and April Bowlby — offers slightly different fare from other DC properties like "Batman" and "Superman," by focusing on misfit characters ranging from robots to negative energy to runaway goo. The titular Doom Patrol often get tossed into incredibly dangerous and eccentric situations.

Brandon Perea plays the role of villain, appearing as Doctor Tyme in the 2020 episode, "Tyme Patrol," who is able to manipulate time and he whisks away members of "Doom Patrol" to what appears to be a roller-skating rink. His costume consists of several time-related items — his character wears a clock face as a mask, a pendulum style neck piece, and he is clad in outrageous colors. Promoting his appearance in 2020 on Twitter, Perea posted an image of his interesting and villainous role, and said, "June 25th. What a Tyme to be Alyve." 

Before Brandon Perea's role in "Nope," he appeared in the 2021 flick, "American Insurrection" as Ajay. Starring Perea, Nadine Malouf, and Nick Westrate, this movie is about a morally decimated United States where there are several out-groups and only one in-group. If people don't belong to the predominate group, they are considered less than second class citizens — and are controlled and oppressed through a system of bar codes and a blood thirsty citizen militia that exposes violence against anybody who isn't Caucasian, Christian, and straight. "American Insurrection" was met with glowing reviews, and the movie currently holds around an 86% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Reviewing "American Insurrection" for Variety, Joe Leydon said of the film, "The well-cast lead actors infuse their characters with a persuasive and compelling sense of urgency, greatly enhancing the stretches of worst-case scenario suspense." Needless to say, Perea's varied career definitely seems to be headed upwards, and chances are, we will be seeing much more of the actor in the future.