Learn Spanish (Latin America): El actor es famoso e impaciente.

Normally, the word for "and" is y. But if the word right after it starts with the sound of "i" (like i- or hi-), the y changes to e. Because impaciente starts with an "i", we say famoso e impaciente. This stops the two "ee" sounds from blending together into one long sound when you speak.

Why do we use es instead of está here? Isn't being impatient a temporary feeling?

You can absolutely use está if you mean the actor is feeling impatient right now in this specific moment. However, by using es (from the verb ser), the sentence describes the actor's general personality. It means he is generally an impatient person by nature.

Why does famoso end in -o but impaciente ends in -e if they both describe a masculine noun?

Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe (el actor is masculine). Adjectives that end in -o change to -a for feminine words, so famoso is the correct masculine form here. However, adjectives that end in -e (like impaciente, inteligente, or grande) are gender-neutral, meaning their spelling stays exactly the same for both masculine and feminine nouns.

How do I pronounce the e when reading this out loud?