EJ Zapata Hollywood extra

EJ Zapata/Vimeo

This Hollywood extra’s compilation reel is epic

He's been in everything from 'Silicon Valley' to 'Captain Marvel.'

 

Josh Katzowitz

Streaming

Posted on Apr 1, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 3:55 pm CDT

EJ Zapata has been featured in a cavalcade of some of the most popular TV shows and movies in recent years. But you’ve probably never paid him any mind.

That’s because Zapata works as a Hollywood extra, tolling in the background of productions, reacting to or simply being around whatever the main stars of the scene are doing. You don’t notice him, and that’s good because it means he can show up in everything from Ballers to Sprint commercials and you’d never be the wiser.

But on Sunday, he certainly got himself noticed online. By posting a highlight reel of his work on Vimeo, where he’s garnered more than 475,000 views in less than 24 hours, Zapata has gone viral for essentially being invisible while right out in the open.

On Vimeo, the video is titled “Solid evidence every TV show, Movie, and Commercial are all in the same Cinematic Universe” before he shows some of the content he’s helped create.

It’s a fun video. Zapata shows himself in season 9, episode 11 of Shameless; season 1, episode 8 of American Vandal; and a quick scene in the Captain Marvel movie. Either Zapata is grinning in the background while wearing a tuxedo or playing on his phone in front of a nightclub or tying his baseball cleats in the locker room during an anti-vaping PSA.

In October, he posted another montage of clips that compelled 470,000 viewers to watch on YouTube.

Clearly, Zapata has enough range where he can be a high school student in a cafeteria, a tech company worker in front of a computer on Silicon Valley, or a busboy on Grey’s Anatomy. As he proves numerous times throughout the video, he puts in plenty of Oscar-worthy performances as “man sitting in crowd.”

Zapata likely isn’t the most famous of all extras—that would probably be this dude. But as of Sunday, Zapata has certainly put himself in the running for the most viral.

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*First Published: Apr 1, 2019, 12:02 pm CDT