What you need to know about Omar Apollo, the Grammy-nominated singer who was spotted with Pedro Pascal

Omar Apolonio Velasco, who goes by the stage name Omar Apollo, was born on May 20, 1997, to Mexican immigrant parents.

Apollo described his parents as "conservative" in an interview with Insider's Callie Ahlgrim in February.

Apollo grew up in Hobart, Indiana, with three older siblings.

Apollo told Remezcla in 2019 that when he was 12, he asked his parents for a guitar for Christmas and was gifted an electric guitar. However, because he didn't have an amp for it, they eventually traded it for an acoustic guitar, which he learned to play by watching YouTube videos.

"It was 'Camp Rock' covers. I was like 12, bro!" he said. "I deadass was on that, cause I ain't know nothing else besides TV — we had a radio but I ain't have no Wi-Fi or nothing yet, so it was just what was on the TV."

According to Remezcla, Apollo began his music career uploading songs to SoundCloud while working at McDonald's.

In 2017, a friend suggested he upload a song to Spotify and even lent him $30 to set up an artist page on the platform.

The song "Ugotme" was soon added to a Spotify playlist called "Fresh Finds" and became a hit.

"The next day it had like 20,000 or like 30,000 plays, and it just started going up from there," Apollo told Remezcla.

In July of that same year, Apollo found a manager through Twitter, Dylan Shanks, and put together his first EP, "Stereo."

Apollo eventually earned his first two Latin Grammy nominations in 2021 when he featured on C. Tangana's song "Te Olvidaste."

In 2022, Apollo's song "Evergreen (You Didn't Deserve Me at All)" went viral on TikTok, and it peaked at No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Apollo told Insider in February that the social media app changed his life.

"I will forever be grateful. I think that good music definitely surpasses any way that it's being consumed," he said.

Apollo was nominated for best new artist at the 2023 Grammys, losing out to Samara Joy.

In December 2022, Apollo's song "Tamagotchi" was also named one of Barack Obama's favorite songs of the year.

Asked which achievement was bigger, Apollo told Insider: "I mean, it's the Grammy nomination. But Obama, I love Obama, man. That's insane." 

Apollo told Insider earlier this year that he worried about being open about his sexuality early in his career.

"When I first started making music, there was definitely a fear of being who I am openly, and it's kind of just reality for me," Apollo said. 

In an interview with Billboard last year, Apollo said he was accused of queerbaiting early in his career because he was less transparent about his sexuality.

"But people thought I was queerbaiting before," he said. "I wasn't super open about my sexuality, but people were hearing things. In Indiana people were saying 'He's not even gay, he's just doing that to be artist-y.' I always thought it was funny because the reality of my life is not that; it's not a choice, it's just what I am."