Alexander Siddig

Siddig el-Tahir el-Fadil el-Siddig Abdurrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim el-Mahdi () was born on 21 November 1965 in Omdurman, Republic of Sudan (present-day, Sudan) to a Sudanese father, Tahir El Mahdi, and Gloria Birkett (née Taylor; d. 2001), an English model and theatrical press agent. Through his father, Siddig is the nephew to Sadiq al-Mahdi, Prime Minister of Sudan during 19661967 and 19861989, and the filmmaker, poet and painter Hussein Shariffe. Siddig is the great-great-grandson of Muhammad Ahmad, a Nubian religious leader and founder of the Mahdist State who was proclaimed the Mahdi by his disciples. Siddig's parents met in the 1960s when his mother travelled to Sudan with a friend, who introduced her to Siddig's father. He also studied geography and anthropology for a year at University College London before enrolling at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). ==Career==

Siddig's first acting role was at the age of 14 in a non-speaking role, playing King Tut in a BBC children's production. Siddig's first television role was a Palestinian man in a British six-part miniseries called The Big Battalions (filmed in 1989 but released in 1992), and shortly afterward, he won the role of Prince Feisal in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, a 1990 telefilm sequel to Lawrence of Arabia starring Ralph Fiennes. In 1995, Siddig also changed his stage name from Siddig El Fadil to Alexander Siddig. The film was never completed. Siddig told Bidoun magazine that demand for Islamic and Arabic character roles was increasing in both film and television after the September 11 attacks and that people began to approach him with projects within six months of the event. Siddig appeared in a cameo role as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the film The Hamburg Cell that premiered the following year. That same year, Siddig appeared as Saladin's aide Imad in Ridley Scott's 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven, and starred alongside George Clooney and Matt Damon as Prince Nasir in the film Syriana. Siddig played the title role in the BBC's 2006 telefilm Hannibal. In 2007, he starred in A Lost Man (French title Un Homme Perdu) a French-language film that screened at the Cannes Film Festival. That same year, he played the role of former terrorist Hamri Al-Assad in the sixth season of 24. Directed by Canadian director Ruba Nadda, the film won the prize for "Best Canadian Feature Film" at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. He also played Jamal in Julian Schnabel’s 2010 film Miral. In 2012, Siddig again worked with director Nadda and played the starring role as a Syrian-Canadian businessman in the film Inescapable, which also starred Marisa Tomei and Joshua Jackson. In 2013, Siddig narrated the BBC Two nature documentary series Wild Arabia and played the role of Minos in the first series of the BBC fantasy-adventure programme Atlantis. From 2013 to 2015, Siddig played Aslan Al-Rahim ("the Turk") in the BBC historical fantasy drama series ''Da Vinci's Demons. In 2015 and 2016, he appeared in the HBO series Game of Thrones''; Siddig played the role of Doran Martell, the ruling Prince of Dorne, in the series' fifth and sixth seasons. He also played Reuben Oliver, an artist and suitor of Polly Shelby, in the third season of the British series Peaky Blinders. Siddig also provided the voice of Wolf, a character in the historical fantasy drama Tumanbay that aired on BBC Radio 4 between December 2015 and February 2016. In 2017, Siddig joined the cast of the televisions series Gotham as League of Shadows leader Ra’s al Ghul and also played the part of Aristotle Onassis in the drama miniseries The Kennedys: After Camelot. In 2019, he appeared in the Netflix series The Spy as Ahmed Suidani, a Syrian security officer. That same year, he appeared as Issouf Al Moctar in the second season of the Fox (UK and Ireland) thriller series Deep State, and voiced Avi Singh in Star Wars: The Bad Batch. ==Personal life==

Siddig began a relationship with Nana Visitor whilst working on the set of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Their son, Django El Tahir El Siddig, was born on 16 September 1996 and Visitor's pregnancy was written into the storyline of Deep Space Nine. Siddig met his second wife, Shana Collier, while filming Cairo Time, for which she was an assistant producer; the couple married in 2015. Siddig stated he was neither Christian nor Muslim in a 2001 letter to his fanclub, but in a 2004 letter described himself as having "quite recently (after nearly 40 years) discovered that he was Muslim". In an April 2024 interview, Siddig described his sexuality as "not quite straight". He has described his hobbies as cooking, woodworking, gardening and computer games. While filming Deep Space Nine he resided in Los Angeles; afterwards he relocated to New York City with his family. As of 2018, he resides in Massachusetts with his wife. ==Filmography==

Film Television ==References==