Barkhad Abdi | |
---|---|
Born | |
Education | Minnesota State University, Moorhead |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 2013–present |
Awards | BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (2014) |
Barkhad Abdi (Somali : Barkhad Cabdi; [1] born April 10, 1985) is a Somali-American actor. He made his acting debut as Somali pirate Abduwali Muse in the biographical drama film Captain Phillips (2013), which earned him a British Academy Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, along with Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
Following his breakthrough, Abdi appeared in the films Eye in the Sky (2015), Good Time (2017), The Pirates of Somalia (2017), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Outside of film, he was featured as a series regular on the second season of the Hulu horror anthology Castle Rock (2019) and a recurring role in the Showtime satirical comedy series The Curse (2023).
Barkhad Abdi was born to Somali parents on April 10, 1985, in Mogadishu, Banaadir, Somalia. The name Barkhad in the Somali language literally means cistern, with water representing life. [2] Around the age of six or seven, when the Somali Civil War broke out, he and his family moved to Yemen to join his father, who had taken up teaching. [3] [4] In 1999, Abdi and his family relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota, home to a large Somali community. [4]
He graduated from Roosevelt High School in 2003 and attended Minnesota State University Moorhead. [4] Before entering the film industry, Abdi sold mobile phones at his brother's shop at a mall in Minneapolis. He also worked as a limousine driver at a relative's chauffeur company and as a DJ. [5] [6]
Abdi made his debut in the Paul Greengrass directed film Captain Phillips (2013), playing ship hijacker and pirate leader Abduwali Muse. [7] [8] He was cast opposite Tom Hanks, following a worldwide search for the lead roles. Abdi and three other actors were chosen from more than 700 participants at a 2011 casting call in Minneapolis. According to the casting director, the four were selected because they were "the chosen ones, that anointed group that stuck out". [9] He was paid $65,000 for his appearance in the film and returned to working in his brother's shop afterwards. [10] For his performance Abdi earned the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also received nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor. [11] Abdi's experience in Captain Phillips was his first in the film industry. [12]
In 2015, Abdi appeared in an episode of the series Hawaii Five-0 , playing former warlord Roko Makoni. [13] Later that year, he began work on the comedy film Trainwreck , though he did not appear in the finished film. [14] He appeared in the 2015 thriller Eye in the Sky as Kenyan undercover agent Jama Farah, and he had a role in The Brothers Grimsby . [15] In the 2017 film The Pirates of Somalia , Abdi played the Somali government-sponsored local agent and translator for Canadian freelance journalist Jay Bahadur. His character coordinates interviews between local pirate leaders and Bahadur, who records the motivations of Somali piracy in the weeks leading up to the Maersk Alabama hijacking. In October 2017, Abdi featured in Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049, in a minor role of a scientist. [16] Abdi made his directorial debut with the Somali film Ciyaalka Xaafada. He has directed several music videos. [4]
In 2022, he acted in the films Tyson's Run and Agent Game starring Mel Gibson and appeared in the Apple TV+ series Little America . [17] In 2023 he acted in the A24 / Showtime satirical comedy-drama series The Curse starring Emma Stone, Nathan Fielder, and Benny Safdie.
In 2013, Abdi began to serve as an Ambassador for Adeso, a non-governmental organisation founded by the Somali environmentalist Fatima Jibrell. [18]
Abdi resided in Los Angeles, California as of 2014 [19] and in 2016 lived in Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis, Minnesota. [20] The bump on his forehead is from a car crash he was in prior to auditioning for Captain Phillips. [21]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | Captain Phillips | Abduwali Muse | |
2015 | Eye in the Sky | Jama Farah | |
Wolf Who Cried Boy | Reggie | Short film | |
2016 | Grimsby | Tabansi Nyagura | |
2017 | Extortion | Miguel Kaba | |
Good Time | Dash | ||
Blade Runner 2049 | Doc Badger | ||
The Pirates of Somalia | Abdi | ||
2018 | The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir | Wiraj | |
2019 | A Girl from Mogadishu | Hassan | |
2020 | Beneath a Sea of Lights [22] | Caweys | |
2022 | Tyson's Run | Aklilu | |
Agent Game | Omar |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | Hawaii Five-0 | Roko Makoni | Episode: "E 'Imi pono" |
2016 | Family Guy | Abduwali Muse (voice) | Episode: "Road to India" |
2019 | Castle Rock | Abdi Omar | 9 episodes |
2021–2022 | Blade Runner: Black Lotus | Doc Badger (voice) | 6 episodes |
2022 | Little America | Mohamed | Episode: "Camel on a Stick" |
2023 | The Curse | Abshir | 6 episodes |
2023 | Carol & The End of The World | Bashiir Hassan (voice) | Episode: “The Life & Times of Bashiir Hassan” |
Roosevelt High School, or simply Roosevelt, is a public school located in the Standish neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. A part of the Minneapolis Public Schools, it is named after 26th United States President Theodore Roosevelt. Athletic and other competition teams from the school are nicknamed the Teddies. Roosevelt has been an International Baccalaureate World School since March 2010, and offers the Diploma Programme as well as the IB Career-related Certificate.
Pirates of the 20th Century is a 1980 Soviet action/adventure film about modern piracy. The film was directed by Boris Durov, the story was written by Boris Durov and Stanislav Govorukhin.
Somali Americans are Americans of Somali ancestry. The first ethnic Somalis to arrive in the U.S. were sailors who came in the 1920s from British Somaliland. They were followed by students pursuing higher studies in the 1960s and 1970s, by the late 1970s through the late 1980s and early 1990s more Somalis arrived. However, it was not until the mid and late 1990s when the civil war in Somalia broke out that the majority of Somalis arrived in the United States. The Somali community in the U.S. is now among the largest in the Somali diaspora.
The Maersk Alabamahijacking began on 8 April 2009, when four pirates in the Somali Basin seized the Danish/U.S. cargo ship Maersk Alabama at a distance of 240 nautical miles southeast of Eyl, Somalia. The siege ended after a rescue effort by the United States Navy on 12 April.
Abduwali Abdulkadir Museعبدالولي موسى is a Somali convicted pirate. He is the sole survivor of four pirates who hijacked the MV Maersk Alabama in April 2009 and then held Captain Richard Phillips for ransom. On 16 February 2011, Muse was sentenced to 33 years and 9 months in U.S. federal prison.
Richard Phillips is an American merchant mariner and author who served as captain of the MV Maersk Alabama during its hijacking by Somali pirates in April 2009.
A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea is a book by Captain Richard Phillips, the captain of the container ship MV Maersk Alabama when it was hijacked in 2009. It was written with Stephan Talty and published by Hyperion on April 6, 2010. It was adapted in a 2013 film, Captain Phillips.
Adeso is Nairobi-based humanitarian non-governmental organization.
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Faysal Ahmed is a Somali–American actor from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The 67th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 16 February 2014 at the Royal Opera House in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2013. The nominations were announced on 8 January 2014 by actor Luke Evans and actress Helen McCrory. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 2013.
Trainwreck is a 2015 American romantic sex comedy film directed and co-produced by Judd Apatow and written by and starring Amy Schumer along with an ensemble supporting cast that includes Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, John Cena, Vanessa Bayer, Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, Mike Birbiglia, Norman Lloyd, and NBA legend LeBron James. The film is about a hard-drinking, promiscuous, free-spirited young magazine writer named Amy Townsend (Schumer) who has her first serious relationship with a prominent orthopedic surgeon named Aaron Conners (Hader). The film received positive reviews from critics, praising the performances of Schumer, Hader, James, and the screenplay.
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The Somali Museum of Minnesota is a cultural institution in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Minneapolis–Saint Paul metro area is home to the largest Somali immigrant and refugee population in the United States, after civil war in Somalia prompted large-scale displacement of the Somali people. The Somali Museum of Minnesota presents a collection of more than 1000 traditional nomadic artifacts from Somalia, as well as educational programming about Somali culture, arts events, and cross-cultural activities. It may now be the only museum in the world dedicated to preserving Somali culture and traditions.
This article lists the winners and nominees for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Oscar-nominated or winning performances also honored with nominations or wins at the Black Reel Awards include Barkhad Abdi, Morgan Freeman, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jamie Foxx (Collateral), Djimon Hounsou and Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls).
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