
Acting
Jun 23, 1966
Quezon City, Philippines
John Arcilla
Acting
Biography
Romeo John Gonzales Arcilla (born June 24, 1966) is a Filipino film and television actor. He is best known for playing the titural role in Heneral Luna (2015), the film selected as the Philippine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards. From 1991 to 1997, Arcilla was a resident actor and senior member of the Tanghalang Pilipino Actor Company, the resident theatre of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. In 2012, Arcilla had a cameo in The Bourne Legacy as a head security guard. The following year, Arcilla also appeared in Metro Manila, the British entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards. In 2021, he was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice International Film Festival for his role in On the Job: The Missing 8, making him the first Filipino and Southeast Asian actor to receive the award. He also received the Best Actor award at the Gawad Urian Awards in 2022 for the same role. He is a two-time Gawad Urian winner and a two-time FAMAS nominee.
Feature Films (56)

After trying to cover up a car accident that left a man dead, a crooked homicide detective is stalked by a mysterious man claiming to have witnessed the event.
A Hard Day

When a couple gets lost after taking a reroute to their town, a man offers his home nearby. As they feel something's wrong, things turn deadly.
Reroute

When a young man lets his temper get out of control, Diobayo, the goddess of horses, puts a curse on him to teach him a lesson.
Petrang Kabayo

Looking for a brighter future in metropolitan Manila, Oscar Ramirez and his family leave their miserable life in the rice terraces of Banaue, in the northern Philippines. In the sweltering capital, where all kind of perils lurk in every corner, Oscar catches a lucky break when he is offered a steady work for an armored truck company and the senior officer Ong takes him under his wing.
Metro Manila

Lilet Never Happened is the rollercoaster story of how a young girl, struggling to survive in the streets of Manila, spirals down into child prostitution. She is a fighter. She is a dreamer. She is a rebel and she thinks she can handle the world with her wits. But she has to face up to reality when she runs out of innocent dreams.
Lilet Never Happened

Inspired by a true news account, this is the astounding story of a lone deranged hijacker who has struggled to survive in the chaos of modern Philippine society.
Manila Skies

A mountain maiden attempts to use education to help solve the problems of an Ifugao village, but finds that outdated traditions and military oppression stand in her way. A photojournalist documents her story.
Ay Ayeng

In Manila, a solitary man from a far-away province lives in poverty. The only thing he has is a camera, and he stays at churches hoping people will hire him to take their photographs. During one day, he has three encounters that change his life: the first, with a smooth-talking young man who's standing by the church door who berates him for wasting his life in church, the second with a boy who offers to take his picture, and the third with a Mercedes-driving man who's been stuck in traffic and has no patience left. Is there any deliverance from the soullessness of the city?
Shadows

Four high school friends hatch a plan for a farcical heist that sends them spiraling into a series of surreal events littered with clowns, fast food, and ‘rakenrol’, in an even more absurd nation of squalor and entertainment.
Burger Boys

Ligaya, a prostitute, decides to change her life and quit her job after saving some money. She then meets the decent farmer, Polding, who becomes her safe haven and her way out of her miserable life. However, her past threatens to undo everything and ruin her life.
They Call Me Joy

This film exposes the human trafficking operation and journey through the seas of Southern Philippines to neighboring Malaysia. Based on research and interviews, this dramatic narrative provides a kaleidoscope of characters hoping for a better life in Sabah, in spite of the dubiousness of the process, and uncertainty of a true job in Malaysia. It also represents a microcosm of the multi-cultural groupings of Mindanao whose diversity is bound by a common goal, an opportunity to earn a living, as they take that illegal small boat ride from their homeland to that foreign "Promised Land."
Ways of the Sea
Television & Series (25)

Barangay 143 follows the coming of age story of a young man in search of a father and how he finds an unlikely family in a team of misfits trying to bring glory to their hometown. It's a story about love and family set against the action-packed world of street basketball, where the stakes are always high and life is the biggest game you can win.
Barangay 143

Machete is a fantasy Philippine drama produced by GMA Network adapted from a character of the same name created by Pablo S. Gomez. Directed by Don Michael Perez, the show premiered on January 24, 2011 replacing Jillian: Namamasko Po on the GMA Telebabad block. The show is broadcast internationally through GMA Pinoy TV on January 26, 2011, two days after its original release. The series is a remake for the movie with the same title which starred Cesar Montano and Rita Avila and was remade again in 1993 which starred Gardo Versoza and Rosanna Roces. The show had its finale on March 18, 2011.
Machete

The series centres around crime syndicates that temporarily release contracted prison inmates to carry out political assassinations for those in power, except that the crime syndicates are run by politicians. The series also puts a spotlight on the real-world predicament concerning fake news and how easily truth can be manufactured and disseminated to the public in today's age of information.
On the Job

A Beautiful Affair is a 2012 Philippine television drama aired on ABS-CBN and worldwide on The Filipino Channel, topbilled by Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz from October 29, 2012 to January 18, 2013 succeeding Walang Hanggan. The drama revolves around two lost souls who meet and fall in love in the city of Vienna in Austria.









