Rami Malek
Rami Said Malek (; , ; born May 12, 1981) is an American actor. He is known for portraying computer hacker Elliot Alderson in the USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and as Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in the biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), for which he won numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the first actor of Egyptian heritage to win in that category. Time magazine named Malek one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019. Born in Torrance, California, to Egyptian immigrant parents, he studied theater before acting in plays in New York City. He had supporting roles in film and television, including the Fox sitcom The War at Home (2005–2007), the HBO miniseries The Pacific (2010), and the Night at the Museum film trilogy (2006–2014). Since his breakthrough, Malek has starred in the crime film The Little Things (2021), played the main antagonist Lyutsifer Safin in the James Bond film No Time to Die (2021), and portrayed David Hill in Christopher Nolan's biographical film Oppenheimer (2023). Early life and education Rami Said Malek was born in Torrance, California, on May 12, 1981, the son of Egyptian immigrant parents Nelly Abdel-Malek and Said Malek (d. 2006). He has said he is also "an eighth Greek". His parents and older sister left Cairo in 1978 after his father, a travel agent and tour guide, became intrigued with Western visitors. They settled in Sherman Oaks, mostly staying in the San Fernando Valley. As a child, Malek rarely ventured into Hollywood, saying "I grew up in the San Fernando Valley in LA, but somehow, I had no idea that I lived right next to Hollywood... I truly thought that that was a million miles away, and it's just a 10-minute drive". His father sold insurance and was a travel agent, while his mother worked as an accountant. Malek was raised in his family's Coptic Orthodox Christian faith, and spoke Egyptian Arabic at home until the age of four. He has an identical twin brother named Sami, who is younger by four minutes and later became an ESL and English teacher. His older sister, Yasmine, is an ER doctor. His parents emphasized to their children the importance of preserving their Egyptian roots, and his father would wake him up in the middle of the night to talk on the phone to his Arabic-speaking extended family in Samalut. As a first-generation American, Malek found it difficult to assimilate during his childhood because of cultural differences, even spending most of his childhood having his name mispronounced: "It only took me 'til high school where I found the confidence to tell everybody, 'No, my name is Rami.' It's a very upsetting thing to think about, that I didn't have the confidence to correct anyone at that point." As a result, he said it was difficult to form a self-identity