Carlos Bernard Papierski was born on October 12, 1962 in Chicago, Illinois. He is the youngest of 3 brothers. His mother is spanish and he lived in Mexico from the age of 8 to 11 years old. He is bilingual in English and Spanish. He was educated at New Trier High School. After graduation, he moved on to Illinois State University. Next, he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in San Francisco in the American Conservatory Theatre.

He started acting on stage in Chicago (“Superman: World Savour or Hermaphrodite from Hell”), San Francisco (“Good”) and LA ("Scenes from an execution") and moved to television.Then, he made a series of guest roles in episodes of “FX The Series, Maloney”, “Silk Stalkings”, “Walker Texas Ranger” and appeared as a regular in “Sunset Beach” and “The Young and the Restless”. He also played in several movies such as “The Killing Jar”, “The Colonel Last Flight”, “Vegas: City of Dreams”... In 2003, he returned to the stage to perform in "Blackout". He also wrote the pilot of a new TV serie, “Mission Road”. But it is joining the cast of Fox's "24" that he made a name for himself. He played Agent Tony Almeida for 5 years in this same show and while this character seemed to be dead and gone in season 5, he is coming back in season 7...

Off camera, he does a lot of sport (golf, basketball, baseball, skiing, racing...) and is also a faithful supporter of his favorite teams (Chicago Bulls, Cubs...). On June 15, 2006, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch and sang “Take me out to the Ball Game” at Wingely Field in Chicago.

Carlos is married to actress Sharisse Baker and has a daughter Natalie.

In 2003, he was named one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” ...