Gabriel Prieto

Gabriel Antonio Prieto Escobar was born on 2 February 1961 in Santiago, Chile. He belonged to the generation that, as he later put it in describing Teatro Aparte's first play, lived through the 1973 military coup as children. Little else about his childhood and parents has been made public.

Prieto studied acting at the drama school of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile between 1983 and 1985. His teachers there included Marés González, Ramón Núñez Villarroel and Héctor Noguera. In his second year, he recalled, the director Jaime Vadell invited him and several classmates to work at Teatro La Feria, and that group of students became Teatro Aparte. He later returned to the same school as a teacher for about 28 years.

Prieto made his television debut in 1984 in the Canal 13 telenovela Los títeres, as Elías Barros, and appeared in El prisionero de la medianoche (1985). In 1988 he co-founded Teatro Aparte with Rodrigo Bastidas, Magdalena Max-Neef and Elena Muñoz. After two productions at Teatro El Conventillo, the company opened ¿Quién me escondió los zapatos negros? at Teatro Universidad Católica in 1991; it ran for four consecutive years and was performed abroad. De uno a diez, ¿cuánto me quieres? followed in 1995 and also stayed on stage for years. Later Teatro Aparte works included Hijos de su madre, in which Prieto played the eldest of four feuding brothers, and Consuegros.

On screen he became known for supporting roles in telenovelas such as Loca piel (1996, Rolando Moreira), Santiago City (1997), Brujas (2005, Emilio Arriagada), Dama y obrero (2012, Olegario Ledesma), Volver a amar (2014, Salustio Corrales), Te doy la vida (2016, Domingo Garrido), 100 días para enamorarse (2019 to 2021, Leonel Salinas) and Hasta encontrarte (2022, Anselmo Cáceres). He was in the main cast of the sitcoms Loco por ti (2004) and Mis años grossos (2009) and guested in La Nany, Casado con hijos, Los Galindo, Huaiquimán y Tolosa and Infieles. He played Ramón Barros Luco in Héroes (2007) and Rafael Orrego in Algo habrán hecho por la historia de Chile (2010). His films included Punto rojo (1996), Lokas (2008), Un loco matrimonio en cuarentena (2021), Tracking (2022) and Consuegros (2022). After a long illness he returned to theatre in La Nona in 2025 and appeared in the Prime Video series Sin frenos.

Prieto was married to the actress Andrea Zuckermann Echagüe; the marriage was later annulled. They had a son, Vicente Prieto Zuckermann, a filmmaker, who said goodbye to him publicly with the words "Hasta siempre, mi viejo". His lifelong friends from drama school and Teatro Aparte, among them Magdalena Max-Neef, Rodrigo Bastidas, Elena Muñoz and Josefina Velasco, were described in the Chilean press as a family of their own, and they cared for him through his illness.

In late 2022 he contracted COVID-19, which, combined with diabetes, led to multiple organ failure and weeks in an induced coma at the Hospital Dr. Luis Tisné. He spent the following years in rehabilitation, sharing his progress with followers on social media.

Prieto spoke with pride about independent, self-funded theatre. In a 2019 interview with ADN Radio he said Teatro Aparte paid for its own productions and therefore worked to keep its plays running for a long time. He described Hijos de su madre as a play about intolerance, homophobia and xenophobia, and summed it up as "La obra es Chile" (the play is Chile). After surviving COVID-19 he spoke openly about his illness, his after-effects and his gratitude to the hospital staff who, in his words, saved his life.

ChileActores said Prieto would go down in history as one of the founders of Teatro Aparte, a company it called an essential contribution to Chilean theatre, and as a teacher of many generations of artists at the Universidad Católica. Culture Minister Francisco Undurraga said his legacy would live on in his work and in the memory of those who learned from him. Actors including Cristián Arriagada, Luz Valdivieso, Mariana Loyola, Solange Lackington and María José Quiroz paid tribute after his death.

No individual awards for Prieto have been documented in the sources consulted. His death was marked by a public statement from Chile's Minister of Cultures, Arts and Heritage and by the Corporación de Actores y Actrices de Chile.

Selected theatre: ¿Quién me escondió los zapatos negros? (1991), De uno a diez, ¿cuánto me quieres? (1995), Hijos de su madre, Consuegros, Tu mujer tiene un amante, Yo, tú y ellos, El traje nuevo del emperador, Ánimas de día claro, 6 actores y un bonete and La Nona (2025).

Selected television: Los títeres (1984), El prisionero de la medianoche (1985), Loca piel (1996), Santiago City (1997), Loco por ti (2004), Brujas (2005), Héroes (2007), Casado con hijos (2007), Mis años grossos (2009), Algo habrán hecho por la historia de Chile (2010), Dama y obrero (2012), Volver a amar (2014), Te doy la vida (2016), 100 días para enamorarse (2019 to 2021), Hasta encontrarte (2022) and Sin frenos (2025).

Film: Punto rojo (1996), Lokas (2008), Un loco matrimonio en cuarentena (2021), Tracking (2022) and Consuegros (2022).

Prieto died on Sunday 11 October 2026 in Santiago, aged 65. ChileActores announced the death that afternoon. Initial reports did not give a cause; on 15 October his friend Magdalena Max-Neef told journalist Álvaro Sanhueza that he had suffered a heart attack. She said he had moved into a new apartment about a month and a half earlier, had gone down to the reception to collect medicine, and collapsed in the corridor outside his door, where a neighbour found him. Two days before his death he had recorded a long interview with Reyes del Drama. His wake was held at Teatro San Ginés (Mallinkrodt 112, Providencia) on 12 October and the morning of 13 October, followed by a responso at noon. A resting place has not been made public.