Nestor Carbonell

OF SHOGUN ON FX/HULU

Q: Was that Nestor Carbonell I saw on “Shogun”? I haven’t seen him since “Lost.” What else has he been doing?

A: It’s hard to believe that “Lost” ended 14 years ago — hard because people still talk about it, and because Nestor Carbonell, like his “Lost” character, doesn’t seem to age.

Carbonell played Richard Alpert on “Lost” — a mysterious figure who first appears in flashbacks but is later revealed to be one of the people who were already living on the supposedly deserted island. He’s also revealed to be immortal — a fact which, by the time he was introduced in the third season, wasn’t all that outlandish by the show’s standards.

In real life, Carbonell is, in fact, a real human being who just happens to look 40 forever. That’s helped him establish himself as a serious TV supporting man, often playing serious professionals reacting to the heightened circumstances around them. While you did, in fact, see him in FX’s “Shogun,” his first post-”Lost” show was a bit of a flop. “Ringer” got just one season on The CW, from 2011 to 2012 (so, just a year after “Lost” ended), with Carbonell playing an uptight FBI agent assigned to protect the show’s protagonist (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, also seeking a career-defining role post-”Buffy the Vampire Slayer”).

But Carbonell’s biggest role was probably the one that came a couple of years later, playing another lawman, Sheriff Alex Romero on A&E’s “Bates Motel.” This prequel to the 1960 slasher classic “Psycho” reunited Carbonell with “Lost” co-creator Carlton Cuse.

Since then Carbonell has been blending guest arcs with a turn to directing (he helmed an episode of “Law & Order” last year, 32 years after doing a bit part on the show’s second season).

That brings us to now when, as you say, he just appeared in a few episodes of the mega-budget FX miniseries “Shogun.” At the same time, he also has a supporting role in the Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show.” In the meantime, he also keeps up a busy sideline as an indie-film supporting star. He has two new movies now in post-production, though neither one — the dystopian drama “Motherland” or the romantic thriller “The Image of You” — has a release date yet.