Mahershala Ali
Mahershala Ali (/məˈhɜːrʃələ/ mə-HUR-shə-lə;[1] born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore on February 16, 1974) is an American actor. He has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019,[2] and in 2020, The New York Times ranked him among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century.[3]
Mahershala Ali
Mahershala Karim-Ali,
Hershal Gilmore (formerly)
Actor
2001–present
1
After pursuing an MFA degree from New York University, Ali began his career as a regular on television series Crossing Jordan (2001–02) and Threat Matrix (2003–04), before his breakthrough role as Richard Tyler in the science fiction series The 4400 (2004–07). His first major film role was in the David Fincher-directed fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). He gained wider attention for supporting roles in the final two films of the original The Hunger Games film series, and in House of Cards, for which he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
Ali won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances as a drug dealer in the drama Moonlight (2016) and as Don Shirley in the comedy-drama film Green Book (2018). He is the first Black actor to win two Academy Awards in the same category, and the second Black actor to win multiple acting Oscars.[4] Ali won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program for executive producing We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest (2020).
In 2019, he played a troubled police officer in the third season of the HBO anthology crime series True Detective and in 2020, he starred in the second season of the Hulu comedy-drama series Ramy. He was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for both performances. Ali has also played Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in the first season of the Netflix series Luke Cage (2016), and voiced Aaron Davis in the animated films Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).
Early life[edit]
Ali was born in Oakland, California, on February 16, 1974, to Willicia Goines and Phillip Gilmore.[5][6][7] His birth name, Mahershalalhashbaz, is from Maher-shalal-hash-baz, the name of the prophet Isaiah's second child (verse 8, Book of Isaiah).[5] Ali was raised as a Christian in Hayward, California, by his mother, an ordained Baptist minister whose own mother, Evia Goines, was herself an ordained minister at Palma Ceia Baptist Church in Hayward.[5][8][9] His father left the family when Ali was a toddler to pursue a career as a dancer;[10] he appeared on Broadway,[9] and died in 1994.[5]
Education[edit]
Ali attended St. Mary's College of California (SMC) in Moraga, California, where he graduated in 1996 with a degree in mass communication as a first-generation college student.[8][11] He entered SMC with a basketball scholarship and went by the name "Hershal Gilmore" when playing for the SMC Gaels.[12] He became disenchanted with the idea of a sports career because of the treatment given to the team's athletes and developed an interest in acting, particularly after taking part in a staging of Spunk, which later landed him an apprenticeship at the California Shakespeare Theater following graduation. After a sabbatical year working for Gavin Report, he enrolled in New York University's graduate acting program at Tisch School of the Arts, earning his master's degree in 2000.[8]
Personal life[edit]
Ali converted to Ahmadiyya Islam in 2000, changing his surname from Gilmore to Ali. In interviews, he has described being the subject of racial profiling at airports and banks following the September 11 attacks.[25][26][27]
He is married to Amatus Sami-Karim, an actress and musician.[28] Their first child, a daughter, was born in February 2017.[29]
Ali is a devout fan of hip hop and has said within various interviews that Cambatta, Planet Asia, Skyzoo, Blu, Ka, Roc Marciano, Mach-Hommy, Pink Siifu, Fly Anakin & Mutant Academy, Mick Jenkins, Sage Elsesser, EARTHGANG, Benny The Butcher, Conway The Machine, Westside Gunn, Hus Kingpin & SmooVth are amongst his favorite artists.[30]
In October 2023, Ali signed the Artists4Ceasefire letter calling for a ceasefire in the 2023 Israel-Hamas War.[31][32] In January 2024, he showed further support for Palestinians in Gaza by reciting the poem "Longing for Haifa" by Palestinian poet Mohammed al-Qudwa in a video for social media, and encouraging his followers to donate to al-Qudwa's fundraiser so that the poet and his family could leave the Gaza Strip.[33]