Barkhad Abdi

BARKHAD ABDI

Date of Birth: April 10, 1985

Barkhad Abdi was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. After a civil war broke out, his family moved to Yemen. When Barkhad was 14, the family moved again, this time to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Barkhad was working as a limousine driver when he saw a story on TV announcing that film producers were looking for local Somalis to play roles in a movie starring Tom Hanks. He went, with hundreds of others, to audition. After several callbacks, he was called in and met director Paul Greengrass, who told him he had landed a role as hijacker Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse in the movie Captain Phillips (2013), based on a true story.

Since filming the movie, Barkhad has taken on a role as Ambassador for the African humanitarian and development organization, Adeso, which helped survivors of the 2013 Somali cyclone.

Barkhad plans to move to Los Angeles to continue his acting career. He has been nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA award and a Screen Actors Guild award. He won the 2013 Capri Breakout Actor Award.

Since Captain Phillips, Barkhad has starred in other popular films such as action flick Eye in the Sky (2016), The Brothers Grimsby (2016), thriller Good Time (2016) and sci-fi film Blade Runner 2049 (2017).

Filmography:

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Good Time (2017)
The Brothers Grimsby (2016)
Eye in the Sky (2016)
Captain Phillips (2013)