Pedro Pascal & Rafael Olarra: Dating Rumors, NYC Outing & Everything We Know
Two public outings. A Valentine’s Day weekend. A romance film. And the internet completely losing its mind. Here is everything you need to know.
Pedro Pascal and Rafael Olarra Story Took Over the Internet
When paparazzi photos surfaced in mid-February 2026 of Pedro Pascal — one of Hollywood’s most beloved and famously private stars — walking arm-in-arm through the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side with a handsome Argentine creative director named Rafael Olarra, the internet did exactly what the internet does: it went into full investigative mode.
Within hours, comment sections were flooded, group chats were buzzing, fan accounts were sharing and resharing the images, and the phrase “Pedro Pascal Rafael Olarra” was trending across multiple platforms. The photos were intimate but not definitive. The timing was loaded but not conclusive. And neither man said a single word — which, of course, made everyone even more curious.
This is the full story — who Pedro Pascal is, who Rafael Olarra is, what exactly happened during those New York City outings, what happened next in Los Angeles, and what the internet has been saying ever since.
Who Is Pedro Pascal?
Pedro Pascal was born José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal on April 2, 1975, in Santiago, Chile. His parents, Verónica Pascal Ureta, a child psychologist, and José Pedro Balmaceda Riera, a fertility doctor, were forced to flee Chile during the brutal military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet while Pedro was still an infant. The family eventually settled in the United States, where Pedro grew up across Texas and Southern California, attending the Orange County School of the Arts before enrolling at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he graduated in 1997.
His early years in Hollywood were defined by struggle. He described himself as having been “unemployed for about ten years,” picking up guest roles here and there on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, NYPD Blue, Nurse Jackie, and various Law & Order installments, while supporting himself with restaurant work and surviving on residual checks that sometimes amounted to less than ten dollars. After the death of his mother in 1999, he changed his professional name from Balmaceda to Pascal in her honor.
The breakthrough finally arrived in 2014, when Pascal was cast as Prince Oberyn Martell — the razor-sharp, brazenly bisexual Dornish prince — in the fourth season of Game of Thrones. His performance was electric. Critics and audiences were immediately captivated by the combination of menace, wit, sensuality, and vulnerability he brought to the role, and Oberyn Martell became one of the most talked-about characters in the entire run of the series despite appearing in just one season.
From there, the career trajectory accelerated rapidly. He starred in Netflix’s Narcos as real-life DEA agent Javier Peña, then took on the lead role in Disney+’s The Mandalorian, which turned him into a global superstar despite the fact that his face was hidden behind a helmet for much of the show’s runtime. His portrayal of Joel Miller in HBO’s The Last of Us — a gruff, emotionally devastated survivor in a post-apocalyptic world — is widely regarded as one of the finest television performances of recent years, earning him Emmy nominations and cementing his reputation as one of the most compelling dramatic actors working today.
In film, he has appeared in Wonder Woman 1984, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Strange Way of Life (a short film directed by Pedro Almodóvar alongside Ethan Hawke), Gladiator II, and as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic in Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. He performed alongside Bad Bunny, Jessica Alba, and Cardi B at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in early February 2026. He is, by any measure, at the absolute peak of his Hollywood powers.
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Pedro Pascal’s Personal Life and Privacy
One of the defining characteristics of Pedro Pascal’s public persona — beyond the extraordinary talent and the warm, self-deprecating humor — is the near-total wall he maintains around his romantic life.
He has never publicly confirmed a romantic relationship. He has never brought a partner to a red carpet event. He has never discussed dating in specifics, despite years of being one of the most photographed and interviewed actors in the world.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Pascal himself pushed back on the idea that he is a deeply private person, saying: “I always feel perplexed when I’m identified in whatever form of media as a ‘highly private person,’ because that’s the opposite of me. I’m very unprivate in my private life.” But on the specific subject of romantic relationships, he explained the reasoning clearly: “I just know that personal relationships are such a complex thing to navigate even without having this enormous lens on them.”
He has been linked by tabloids over the years to various women, including Maria Dizzia, Lena Headey, Robin Tunney, and Jennifer Aniston — the latter a rumor he shot down publicly. None of these relationships were ever confirmed by Pascal himself.
Crucially, Pedro Pascal has also never publicly addressed his sexuality. He has not identified publicly as gay, straight, bisexual, or anything else. What he has done, consistently and vocally, is demonstrate fierce allyship with the LGBTQ+ community — most notably in his unwavering public support of his sister Lux Pascal, who came out as transgender in February 2021. He has spoken about Lux with extraordinary love and warmth, telling Esquire: “I wouldn’t want to speak on her behalf, but she is and has always been one of the most powerful people and personalities I’ve ever known. My protective side is lethal, but I need her more than she needs me.” He has also been a visible and vocal supporter of his The Last of Us co-star Bella Ramsey, who identifies as nonbinary.
His breakout role as the bisexual Prince Oberyn, combined with his deep allyship and deliberately opaque public persona, has long made questions about his personal sexuality a subject of fascination — and significant speculation — among fans.
Who Is Rafael Olarra?
When the photos first appeared, a large portion of the internet’s immediate reaction was a version of: “Wait — who is Rafael Olarra?”
Rafael Olarra is 47 years old and Argentine by origin. He is a creative director and art director who has worked for Faena — the luxury hotel and arts district brand founded by Argentine entrepreneur Alan Faena — since August 2015. On his official website, Olarra describes his role as being responsible for materializing Alan Faena’s vision and developing the Faena district, a project built in collaboration with some of the most celebrated creative minds in the world, including filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, designer Catherine Martins, artist Juan Gatti, and architects Rem Koolhaas and Norman Foster, among others. His work is immersive, luxury-world, high-art — the kind of creative direction that sits at the intersection of hospitality, design, fashion, and culture.
Beyond his work at Faena, Olarra has built a freelance portfolio spanning fashion campaigns, editorial shoots, advertising projects, exhibitions, television, theatre, and live events. He is deeply embedded in the overlap between the artistic and the glamorous, living and working between Miami and other major cities.
Olarra has one notable prior public romantic relationship: he dated Welsh actor and singer Luke Evans. The pair went Instagram-official in February 2020, but Luke Evans confirmed their split in January 2021, less than a year after going public. Olarra’s relationship with Evans is the only relationship he has publicly acknowledged, and he maintains a generally low profile outside of that chapter.
He and Pedro Pascal have not previously been publicly linked or reported to be acquainted — which is part of what made the Valentine’s weekend photos so surprising and so immediately interesting to observers.
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The New York City Outing: What Happened and When
The story broke in stages, with multiple sightings over a condensed period of time adding fuel to the speculation.
The first photographs to circulate — taken on February 6, 2026 — placed Pascal and Olarra in Manhattan’s Lower East Side on a Sunday afternoon. Both men were dressed in what multiple outlets described as “dapper” attire, and they were photographed walking together and, notably, linking arms as they made their way to lunch. They appeared relaxed, smiling, and entirely at ease in each other’s company. They reportedly did some sightseeing in the neighborhood before sitting down to eat.
Pedro was bundled against the cold weather in a hoodie, a jean jacket, and a heavy cardigan layered together, accessorizing with yellow-rimmed glasses. Rafael opted for a peacoat over a gray crewneck, appearing slightly more accustomed to the winter conditions than his companion.
The second part of the New York story involves a film screening. Photographs taken the same weekend appear to show both men seated together inside a movie theater, watching Wuthering Heights — the hotly anticipated period romance starring Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie. The images from the theater show the pair sitting close, periodically chatting quietly, and sharing what appeared to be a comfortable, intimate moment between two people who were clearly happy to be in each other’s company.
Then came the photographs from Monday, February 16. Just Jared reported that Pascal, 50, and Olarra, 47, were photographed exiting a vehicle together in the Lower East Side and walking to a hotel. Pedro stopped to sign autographs and pose for photos with fans on the sidewalk before heading inside. This was not a quick, fleeting appearance — it was a proper evening outing, photographed by multiple outlets, with both men arriving and moving together without any apparent concern about being seen.
The combination of all of this — a Sunday lunch arm-in-arm, an evening at the movies watching a romance film, a Monday night hotel arrival — happening over Valentine’s Day weekend was, for many observers, simply too loaded to be coincidental.
The Los Angeles Sighting: Things Get More Affectionate
If the New York photos fueled speculation, the Los Angeles photographs confirmed that whatever is between these two men, it is not a one-off encounter.
Shortly after the New York coverage, TMZ published photographs of Pascal and Olarra spotted together in Beverly Hills on a casual stroll through the California sunshine. The body language in the LA photos was notably more affectionate than anything captured in New York. In one photograph, Pascal is seen with his arm wrapped around Olarra’s waist, appearing to lean in and rest his mouth and chin on Olarra’s shoulder. In another, Olarra appears to be returning the gesture, reaching his arm around Pascal. Both men are smiling and laughing, appearing entirely unbothered by the cameras and entirely comfortable with one another.
Olarra was photographed wearing a lower-leg brace during the outing, and both men were dressed in relaxed athletic wear, suggesting this was not a formal appearance but a genuine, low-key afternoon together.
When a photographer asked the pair directly about the nature of their relationship, both men kept quiet. No comment. No confirmation. No denial. Just two people continuing their walk.
What the Internet Has Been Saying
The public reaction to the Pedro Pascal and Rafael Olarra sightings has been, in a word, enormous — and notably warm.
Fans flooded comment sections across Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Reddit with a wide range of responses. Some were straightforwardly thrilled at the idea of a potential romance, with comments like “Oh great, another gorgeous couple to envy!!!” lighting up under every new post. Others were quick to note that the photos, while suggestive, were not definitive, and urged restraint in drawing conclusions.
A significant thread of conversation focused on Pedro Pascal’s sexuality itself — with many fans referencing his portrayal of the openly bisexual Oberyn Martell and drawing parallels between the character and the man. “I loved how his Game of Thrones character was also bisexual, I think he’s always been open about it,” one fan wrote. Others drew comparisons to moments when celebrities’ previously private personal lives became public, with several noting a reaction similar to when Ricky Martin came out publicly.
Notably, many voices in the conversation pushed back against the impulse to immediately label or categorize. Comments like “May I suggest to y’all that bisexuality exists too,” and “Sexuality is a spectrum — why do we care who dates who and why must we label everything?” reflected a broadly inclusive attitude in the response. Others were more pointed: “Pretty positive the man has never commented on his sexuality. Also let him like whoever he likes.”
The intellectual honesty of a lot of the fan conversation was striking. Many people acknowledged what is actually true: two men walking arm-in-arm and spending time together is not, in itself, confirmation of a romantic relationship. The photographs are suggestive, the timing is interesting, the body language has been interpreted as meaningful — but none of it is, strictly speaking, a declaration. As one thoughtful piece noted, sometimes two people are simply walking arm-in-arm.
What We Know for Certain vs. What Remains Speculation
It is worth being clear-eyed about what is confirmed and what is not.
What is confirmed: Pedro Pascal and Rafael Olarra were photographed together in New York City over Valentine’s Day weekend 2026, linking arms and appearing comfortable and close. They were also seen attending a screening of Wuthering Heights together. They were photographed exiting a vehicle together during a Monday evening outing in Manhattan. And they were photographed together again in Los Angeles in physically affectionate postures.
What is not confirmed: Neither Pedro Pascal nor Rafael Olarra has made any statement whatsoever about the nature of their relationship. There has been no denial, but there has been no confirmation either. The relationship — if there is one — remains unacknowledged by both parties.
Pedro Pascal has a long track record of keeping his personal relationships completely out of the public eye. His silence on this matter is entirely consistent with the approach he has taken throughout his entire career. It would be unfair and inaccurate to state as fact something that remains, at this point, purely a matter of speculation based on photographs.
Why This Story Has Resonated So Deeply
Part of what makes the Pedro Pascal and Rafael Olarra story so compelling is not just the celebrity factor — it is the cultural moment in which it arrives.
Pedro Pascal has become something more than a movie star to his fans. He has become, in a genuine and earned way, a symbol of warmth, inclusivity, and the kind of human decency that feels rare and precious. His public allyship, his humor, his willingness to embrace fan culture and meme culture, his deeply touching performances exploring love and loss and family — all of it has created a relationship between Pascal and his audience that is unusually intimate for a man who guards his private life so carefully.
So when photographs appear that seem to offer a glimpse into something real and personal — something that might be love, or tenderness, or connection — people respond not with prurient curiosity but with something closer to genuine care. They want him to be happy. They root for him.
And Rafael Olarra, for his part, is no random figure. He is a thoughtful, accomplished creative professional with a full and interesting life of his own. Whatever the nature of the connection between them, the photographs suggest two people who are genuinely at ease in each other’s company — and in a world that increasingly values authenticity above performance, that ease is its own kind of statement.
Pedro Pascal’s Upcoming Projects
While the romantic speculation swirls, Pedro Pascal’s professional calendar is as full as it has ever been.
He is set to reprise his role as Din Djarin in The Mandalorian & Grogu, a theatrical film scheduled for release in May 2026, directed by Jon Favreau and expanding the Star Wars universe with appearances from Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White among others. He recently appeared as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic in Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. He is preparing to begin filming De Noche Vendrán (working title), a romance directed by Todd Haynes, in March 2026, in which he will play a detective in what has been described as a subversive love story alongside Danny Ramirez. The project is funded by MK2 Films and marks his first collaboration with Haynes.
Additionally, the second season of The Last of Us completed filming and is awaiting release, with Pascal returning alongside Bella Ramsey.
In other words, whether or not a romance is blossoming in his personal life, Pedro Pascal’s professional life shows absolutely no signs of slowing down.
The Bottom Line
Pedro Pascal and Rafael Olarra have been photographed together — arm-in-arm in New York, affectionate in Los Angeles — over a period spanning Valentine’s Day weekend and beyond. The images are striking, the body language is warm, and the timing has made people pay attention.
Neither man has confirmed or denied anything.
Pedro Pascal has never publicly addressed his sexuality, and he has spent his entire career protecting his personal relationships from public scrutiny — not out of shame, but out of a genuine belief that love and intimacy deserve to exist outside the enormous, relentless lens of celebrity culture.
What the photos show, undeniably, is two people who appear to enjoy each other’s company very much. Whether that enjoyment is romantic, deeply friendly, or something else entirely is a question only they can answer — and they may choose never to answer it publicly.
And honestly? That is perfectly okay too.
