Isn't he romantic?

Oscar Isaac, the rising young star who got his start onstage under South Florida mentors like Area Stage's John Rodaz and GableStage's Joseph Adler, has been moving back and forth between stage and movie projects.

Tonight, he begins performances in Grace, a play by Mick Gordon and A.C. Grayling.  He's playing opposite Lynn Redgrave in the piece about a brilliant atheist professor who finds herself at odds with her son, who has decided to become a priest. It's at the Manhattan Class Company in New York through March 8.

Isaac has also just finished work on Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, due out later this year.

Yet even though his career is getting bigger, Isaac in many ways remains the same very talented and very nice Miami guy he was before he left for Juilliard in 2001.  On Christmas Eve, he popped the question to longtime girlfriend Maria Miranda (they met nine years ago at Miami Dade College's Kendall campus) in spectacular fashion:  After taking her to the Metropolitan Opera, he proposed by the Lincoln Center fountain.  She said yes.

Maybe that's not such a surprising romantic gesture from a guy who made his first big splash out of Juilliard playing Romeo at the Public Theater's summer Shakespeare production in Central Park. But it's lovely. Congratulations!