Ebraheim, called Ebra, is a fictional character on the FX Network television series The Bear. Created by Christopher Storer, Edwin Lee Gibson has played Ebra since with the show's premiere in 2022. Ebra is an immigrant to the United States, a veteran soldier, and a veteran line cook at the Original Beef of Chicagoland sandwich shop in the River North neighborhood. He is supportive of new owner Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) but initially struggles to find purpose when the Beef is remodeled into the high-end Bear.
Ebra is a line cook who has worked at the Berzatto family restaurant for a long time.[1] Like his friend Tina Marrero (Liza Colón-Zayas), Ebra is in large part motivated to excel at his work because of his love for Mikey Berzatto (Jon Bernthal), an abiding affection he later transfers to heir Carmy.[2] When the Beef shutters for renovation into what becomes the Bear, chefs Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) sent line cooks Ebra and Tina to culinary school for the interregnum. Tina delighted in the continuing education, but Ebra "quietly [dropped] out...before returning to feed working-class locals at the Bear's lunchtime sandwich window."[2] Owner Carmy eventually re-opened the Italian beef sandwich window and tasked Ebra with its management, as something of an afterthought, which may have been suggestive of both Carmy's general dreaminess and his lifelong effort to distance himself from the traumatic working-class background he left behind as a teenager.[3] Later in season three, Carmy and his sister, Bear business manager Natalie Berzatto Katinsky (Abby Elliott), brought in Pop-and-Mikey-era Beef veterans Chi-Chi (Christopher Zucchero) and Chuckie (Paulie James) to help Ebra with the sandwich window, funding their paychecks with revenue from that sector of the business specifically.[3] In season four, the enterprising Ebra sought to "create opportunity" for the larger Berzatto family by engaging consultant Albert Schnur (Rob Reiner) to develop a plan for expanding the sandwich business into multiple locations.[2] The sandwiches are a profit center for the business, so the stoic Ebra may well save the entire family from breaking up and scattering to the winds, a "twist that perfectly fits Storer's world...[which] celebrates dedication and greatness in the most unlikely places."[4]
Ebra is a nomadic figure who has traveled widely in his day.[2] Before coming to the United States, he lived in East Africa and the Middle East.[2] The original character description given to Gibson was that Ebra is "a mystery who's lived 1,000 lives."[5] He is a war veteran,[6] and may be a refugee from the Somali Civil War.[7] In season one "grillmaster" Ebra prepares the Somalian dish sukhaar[so] for "family meal" at the restaurant.[8] According to Ebon Moss-Bachrach about the season-one crisis of "Review," when Sydney stabs Richie, "There's a protocol! They have a protocol in place. [Richie] immediately calls Ebraheim, they go straight up to the front, they know where to go. Ebraheim has experience with triage. It's like any other day for him."[9] Ebra is described by one critic as a man of wisdom with a "strong, silent presence" that offers "a calming contrast to the high-decibel action surrounding him...the character is not just a kitchen hand but someone with a rich backstory and a sense of dignity that informs his work ethic."[6]
Gibson told Vulture in 2025, "If you take Ebra and you take Bear, they're anagrams. No one thought about that except me, okay? [Laughs.] I brought that up, and I think Christopher Storer said something like, 'Dude.'"[2]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
