Domingo was raised in a loving, modest Philadelphia home (“I was adored and told that I was smart and special,” he says) by his mother and stepfather
Domingo was raised in a loving, modest Philadelphia home (“I was adored and told that I was smart and special,” he says) by his mother and stepfather, before studying journalism at Temple University. On the advice of a valued professor, Domingo left school about 36 credits shy of graduation with his sights set on becoming an actor. During a liberating stint in California—“I was naked a lot in San Francisco,” he quips—Domingo became aperformer in a political children’s circus. “It prepared me for the circus that I’m in now, in many ways,” he says. “If more people studied clowning, it would be good for everybody.”
After Domingo moved to New York City in 2001, he found success with smaller roles in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012) and Lee Daniels’s The Butler (2013). But it was his portrayal of addiction sponsor Ali on HBO’s Euphoria that earned him two Emmy nominations and a win. Amid reports of tension on the Euphoria set heading into its third and final season, Domingo may have played a key part in bringing cast and crew back together. “There could be some truth to that,” he tells Guiducci. “Listen, I think I’m a very pragmatic person. I feel like I can talk to producers, I can talk to directors, actors—find out what people need and get away from the noise of things. I’m not interested in the noise of it, I’m interested in the creative solutions.”
Domingo also says he took issue with how writer-director Sam Levinson’s set has been portrayed in the press. “It’s so funny to me, because I feel like my whole experience on Euphoria has been extraordinarily positive and collaborative,” he says. “So when I hear that there was trouble, to be honest, I feel like a lot of people aren’t telling the truth. Of course, we all have our information because we talk to our colleagues and everything. And I don’t think people have always been honest about their experience. I think that sometimes people will use it for their own worth in some way.”
The actor maintains that, while shooting Euphoria could be taxing, “I’ve done harder work on Fear the Walking Dead,” the eight-season AMC series on which he starred from 2015 to 2023. That set “was, like, 16-hour days in the mud and filth,” says Domingo. “And Sam Levinson is one of the most beautiful creatives. He really is one of the kindest souls that anyone would ever meet. Listen, I’ve been working so long. The role of Ali was created for me. And I’ve been given the most complex arc that I’ve ever been given on any television show.”
