[1] He came to national attention in 2018 for his portrayal as Lil Papi Evangelista on FX's popular television drama series Pose.
[5] Two other school productions he took part in were William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Stephen Adly Guirgis's Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train.
In 2016 he was in Christopher James Lopez's America Adrift, a heroin-addiction melodrama about a Long Island family led by matriarch schoolteacher Cecelia Fernandez (Lauren Vélez).
[13] Written and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, the drama centers on three Black men who struggle to reconcile their lives "as they marinate in guilt and complicity-by-inaction".
[12][13] Curiel was in college at Pace University and after three years he left to be a cast member on FX's drama series Pose.
[2] The show is about the African-American and Latino trans, gay and gender nonconforming ballroom culture scene in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s.
Featured characters are dancers and models who compete for trophies and recognition in the underground culture, and who support one another in a network of chosen families known as Houses.
[5] Curiel's other films to date include Reinaldo Marcus Green's Monsters and Men, and Jordana Spiro's Night Comes On.
[14] In July 2019, Curiel was nominated for a 2019 Imagen Award in the "Best Supporting Actor – Television" category for his work as Lil Papi Evangelista on FX's Pose.
In July 2019, news that Curiel and Pose producer, director, and writer Janet Mock had been romantically involved for a year made national headlines.