Nanding Josef

In the 1970s, Josef joined the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) after auditioning for the group's laboratory productions during the time of Lino Brocka and Cecile Guidote-Alvarez. He had various other roles within PETA. Eventually he quit being a zoology instructor and taught theater across the Philippines.^[2] This was during the Martial law era under President Ferdinand Marcos. He describes his training under PETA as having to understand the "psychological and social realities of the character" or method acting^[3]

He considers the role of Macli-ing Dulag, the Cordillera tribal leader killed for opposition to the Chico River Dam Project as his most memorable theater act.^[2]

He has become the artistic director for Tanghalang Pilipino in 2008.^[4][5]

Josef has also acted for television and film as well.^[4] He appeared in Walang Hanggan, Hanggang Saan, Cinco and Maalaala Mo Kaya^[6] He won Best Actor at the 44th Gawad Urian Awards in 2021 for the role of Baldo in Lahi, Hayop.^[7]

Fernando Josef held various position within the Philippine government. In 1986, he was chairman of the National Committee on Dramatic Arts of what was then the Presidential Commission for Culture and Arts (PCCA). He was then elected as chairman for the PCCA's successor, the National Commission on Culture and the Arts until the early 1990s.^[5]

From 1989 to 1995, Josef served as the division chief of the Coordinating Center of Dramatic Arts of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).^[5]

Josef has inherited an ancestral house in Marikina in 2018 which is dubbed as the Bahay Malaya.^[8]