Fabrizio Guido Shot His Shot & Scored Big With Running Point
The 25-year-old was initially passed over for what’s now his buzziest role yet.
After he first caught the acting bug at 3, Fabrizio Guido has finally found his slam-dunk role in Netflix’s Running Point. The 25-year-old Los Angeles native knew the part of affable, rags-to-riches basketball fan Jackie Moreno was special when he first saw a script — and not just because the character shared the same name as his actor mother. “Culturally, I felt what I could bring to Jackie was really important,” Guido says, noting his Mexican American heritage and roots in L.A. “I felt like I had a different kind of responsibility with this one.”
Guido is surrounded by houseplants and the L.A. sunlight, removing his earphones as we begin our Zoom call to ask if the audio quality would be better. It’s easy to see why he immediately connected to his Running Point character — not only does he share Jackie’s nervous endearment, but also his unassuming optimism and laid-back humor. (“I just wanted to do whatever Spider-Man was doing as a kid. I wanted to be on screen like him.”) Most importantly, he was able to channel the vendor-turned-assistant’s resolve to land his biggest project yet.
After sending in an audition tape and meeting with the show’s producers over Zoom, Guido was met with radio silence... until he got some crushing news. “I woke up one morning, and my DMs were being flooded with people sending me this open casting call for Mindy Kaling’s new show,” Guido says. “I was like, ‘Wait. I just auditioned for that.’”
At that moment, he could have assumed casting had passed on him, but instead, he decided to take a second shot by showing up at the open auditions. “It was a learning lesson to find my confidence,” Guido says. “It was like, ‘All right, now the world’s here. Let’s enter this chat, let’s go.’ And before I knew it, I got the best call ever.” (Not unlike Jackie, who gets the life-changing news in Episode 1 that he’s a member of the Gordon family’s basketball empire.)
Brenda [Song]’s kind of like my big sis on set.
This resilience is something Guido has learned after nearly two decades in the entertainment industry. As a toddler, he spent a lot of time in L.A. theaters during his mother’s rehearsals for her various stage plays. “One day when I was about 3, they were doing a play that called for a little angel, and there was no one to play it. So they threw some wings on me and sent me out,” he says. “I just remember the lights hitting me, and I was suddenly in front of a ton of people.”
From there, his mom’s filmmaker friends would include Guido in their indie films, and he started shooting commercials when he was around 8 or 9. His first TV role was a guest spot on Grey’s Anatomy when he was 11, followed by his first major movie — a small part in 2013’s World War Z — when he was 14. As he grew in the industry, Guido also discovered his love for stand-up comedy in 2021, a facet of his career he’s become just as focused on as his acting.
But achieving his current level of success hasn’t been easy. Guido has dealt with the pits and valleys of being a working actor, mostly appearing in smaller guest roles before landing a lead part in Netflix’s 2019 sitcom Mr. Iglesias. “I’ve been very fortunate, but that’s not to say I haven’t come up against rejection,” Guido says. “I’m still learning to cope with the feeling of feast or famine, where you’re either not doing the gigs or coming back.”
While that fluctuation can be a struggle, Guido has learned how to cope with it. “That unknown is so scary, but I’ve learned that it’s going to be here forever,” he says. “The unknown is the only certain thing we have in life, so you might as well start making peace with it.”
With his star-making turn on Running Point, Guido’s days of grinding for smaller gigs might finally be behind him. When filming commenced in February 2024, he found himself surrounded by Hollywood greats — most notably, the show’s lead, and his new on-screen sister, Kate Hudson. “Kate has some of the best stories,” Guido says. “We would sit down at lunch, and she’d tell us about her life, and you can imagine all the celebrities that got brought up. When Kate tells a story, it’s like, ‘Wait, did she just say that first name? Is there a last name to that?’ And then you hear the last name, and it’s like, ‘Whoa.’”
His closest bond was with Brenda Song, who plays the basketball team’s industrious chief of staff. Guido grew up watching Song on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. “Brenda’s kind of like my big sis on set,” Guido says. “I ask her questions about choices I’m thinking of making within my career. She was a child actor herself, so she has so much knowledge and wisdom about all this. The way her character guided Jackie in the show, I feel like she was doing that in my own life.”
In the coming year, Guido is manifesting Running Point’s success, starring in an Xbox short, and continuing to grow his stand-up comedy career. “Stand-up is a big part of my life,” he says. “I want to tour and do more rooms.”
His first goal already seems to be a success — just one week after it premiered, Running Point was picked up for a second season. And Guido already has a vision for what he wants Jackie’s future to look like. In Season 1, the newly appointed assistant struggled to find his footing in his family’s corporation, although glimmers of promise shone through. “I want to see Jackie be even more ambitious with his career,” he says. “I’d love to see Jackie reach new heights, and feel like he has a voice.”
