De la Fuente was born in New Hartford, New York, the middle of three boys born to Filipino immigrant parents; his older brother is two years older and his younger brother is six years younger.^[4] He grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and graduated from North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, Illinois, in 1987. He received his BA degree in theatre arts in 1991 from Brown University, and his MFA degree in 1994 from NYU's graduate acting program at the Tisch School of the Arts.^[5]

De la Fuente met his wife Melissa Bowen while performing in Shakespeare in the Park.^[6] They married in June 2000. They have two daughters, Elena (born 2001) and Tallulah (born 2005).

Film edit

• Roommates (1995) as Toby
• Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002) as Thavi Matola
• The Happening (2008) as Realtor
• Taking Chance (2009) as Ticketing Agent
• The Adjustment Bureau (2011) as Thompson's aide
• Brief Reunion (2011) as Aaron
• Forgetting the Girl (2012) as Derek
• Julia (2014) as Dr. Lin
• Ava's Possessions (2015) as Escobar
• Red Sparrow (2018) as U.S. Senator
• The Same Storm (2021) as John Park

Television edit

• Due South (1994) as Charlie Wong (Episode "Chinatown")
• Space: Above and Beyond (1995–1996) as Lt. Paul Wang (main role)
• High Incident (1996) as Detective Aquino (3 episodes)
• When the Cradle Falls (1997) as Bill Avila (TV Movie)
• ER (1997) as Med Student Ivan Fu (2 episodes)
• 100 Centre Street (2001–2002) as Peter Davies (12 episodes)
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2002–2011) as TARU Tech Ruben Morales (52 episodes)
• All My Children (2007) as Seamus Wong (4 episodes)
• Canterbury's Law (2008) as Assistant Attorney General Peter Upton (2 episodes)
• Nurse Jackie (2011) as a priest (1 episode)
• Hemlock Grove (2013–2015) as Dr. Johann Pryce (main role)
• Blue Bloods (2015) as Edward Gomez (Episode: "Flags of Our Fathers")
• The Man in the High Castle (2015–2019) as Chief Inspector Kido (main role, 39 episodes)
• Limitless (2016) as Daniel Lee (Episode: "A Dog's Breakfast")
• Madam Secretary (2017–2019) as President Datu Andrada (3 episodes)
• Bull (2017) as Brent Janson (Episode: "How to Dodge a Bullet")
• Manifest (2018–2020) as Dr. Brian Cardoso (2 episodes)
• The Blacklist (2019) as Dr. Guillermo Rizal (Episode: Guillermo Rizal")
• Devils (2022) as Cheng Liwei
• The Good Doctor (2022) as Jacob (Episode: Growth Opportunities)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society (2022) as Officer "Cannonball" Zhao (2 episodes)
• Hello Tomorrow! (2023) as Bill Blankenship (1 episode)
• My Adventures with Superman (2023) as General Sam Lane (voice, recurring role)
• The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023) as Losang (1 episode)

Video games edit

• The Warriors (2005) as Additional Civilian
• Homefront (2011) as Hopper Lee

Theatre edit

• Hold These Truths (2018) as Gordon Hirabayashi, others

• Filipinos in the New York City metropolitan region

• Joel de la Fuente at IMDb
• Joel de la Fuente at TV Guide
• Official website