VIDEO | ‘Narcos’ star Wagner Moura who plays Pablo Escobar is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt

The popular Narcos Netflix series has grown in popularity and is running through its second season on the subscription-based entertainment company.

The Narcos storyline is about the life of Pablo Escobar and the drama that comes along with being the notorious drug lord.

From IMDB:

“Narcos tells the true-life story of the growth and spread of cocaine drug cartels across the globe and attendant efforts of law enforcement to meet them head on in brutal, bloody conflict. It centers around the notorious Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) and Steve Murphy (Holbrook), a DEA agent sent to Colombia on a U.S. mission to capture and ultimately kill him. Written by Soumik Ghosh.”

While the Netflix series has people binge-watching, a lesser known fact for fans of the series and martial arts will get a kick to find out that the star playing the role of Pablo Escobar is a Brazilian actor named Wagner Moura, who also is a seasoned Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner and has a few photos of himself in the gi on his Instagram account.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu website BJJ Eastern Europe recently highlighted the fact that Moura is a purple belt in jiu-jitsu and uncovered some video footage of the actor highlighting his training for his past role in Elite Squad 2.

According to IMDB, Moura was born in Salvador, Brazil and grew up in the small town of Rodelas, Bahia. At age 13, he and his family moved to Salvador, Bahia. The talented Moura also is a vocalist in the band he is in called Sua Mãe.