Background

Ethnicity: Rami Malek is of 87.5% Egyptian and 12.5% Greek descent.

Rami Malek was born on May 12, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, the United States, to Egyptian Coptic Orthodox parents Said Malek and Nelly Abdel-Malek. His father was a tour guide in Cairo, who later became an insurance agent. His mother is an accountant. Malek is a first-generation immigrant and his parents both worked in Egypt for several years before deciding to make it in America in the late 1970s.

Rami has an identical twin brother named Sami who is younger by four minutes and works as an ESL and English teacher. He has an older sister named Yasmine who is a medical doctor.

Malek grew up speaking Arabic until he started school at the age of four years old. His late father was determined that his children would never forget their roots and often woke Rami and his siblings in the middle of the night to speak to their relatives in Samalut, Egypt. Although he is no longer fluent in his mother tongue, Malek still holds interviews in Arabic.

Education

Malek attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California where he graduated in 1999 along with fellow actress Rachel Bilson. Malek attended high school with Kirsten Dunst, who was a grade below and shared a musical theater class with him.

He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2003 from the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana. Throughout his university career, he actively pursued acting and performed in various stage productions.

Career

After graduating from the University of Evansville in Indiana in 2003, Malek returned to Los Angeles and took on small roles in television shows. That same year he voiced "additional characters" for the video game Halo 2, for which he was uncredited. In 2004, Malek began his acting career with a guest-starring role on the TV series Gilmore Girls. In 2005, he got his Screen Actors Guild card for his work on the Steven Bochco war drama Over There, in which he appeared in two episodes. That same year, he appeared in an episode of Medium and was cast in the prominent recurring role of Kenny, on the Fox comedy series The War at Home.

Steadily gaining traction in the television world, Rami made his feature film debut as the Pharaoh Ahkmenrah in the comedy Night at the Museum (2006), where he appeared alongside the likes of Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, and Owen Wilson. That same year, he returned to television and earned a recurring role as a suicide bomber, Marcos Al-Zacar, on season 8 of the show 24. He later reprised his role as Ahkmenrah in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009).

In the spring of 2007, he appeared on-stage as “Jamie” in the Vitality Productions theatrical presentation of Keith Bunin’s The Credeaux Canvas at the Elephant Theatre in Los Angeles.

Rami’s greatest critical acclaim thus far in his career would come in 2010 for his portrayal as Corporal Merriell Shelton on the HBO miniseries The Pacific, which was produced by Steven Spielberg. The series won an Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries and also was nominated for and won several other accolades. Tom Hanks, who was a producer on the series, recognized Rami’s talent and later cast him in the romantic comedy Larry Crowne (2011).

Some of Rami's other film credits include the role of Benjamin, an Egyptian vampire in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012), in the indie film Short Term 12 (2013) with Brie Larson and in the third installment of the Museum series, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014).

He appears as one of the main characters (Josh) in Until Dawn, a 2015 horror game released on the Playstation 4 on August 25. He lent his voice and was fully motion-captured for the game.

His star on the rise, Malek in 2015 began his run as morphine-addicted hacker Elliot Alderson in USA Network's critically acclaimed psychological drama Mr. Robot, with Christian Slater. Besides winning a Golden Globe, a Critics Choice Award and a SAG Award, among others, for his work on Mr. Robot, Malek took home an Emmy in 2016, distinguishing him as the first Egyptian-American to win an Emmy for acting. In December 2016 Mr. Robot continued to be a boon for Malek when he was nominated again for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series.

In September 2016, Buster's Mal Heart, the first movie in which Malek plays a starring role, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to positive reviews. In it, Malek plays one man with two lives, Jonah and Buster. In August 2016, it was announced that Malek will co-star with Charlie Hunnam as Louis Dega in a contemporary remake of the 1973 film Papillon. Papillon premiered September 2017 at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2017, Malek joined the cast of Bojack Horseman (season 4), voicing the character Flip McVicker, a writer who does not trust email.

In 2016, it was announced that Malek would portray Freddie Mercury, infamous artist and lead singer of the band Queen. The film premiered in London on October 23, 2018, and became a major box office success, grossing over $900 million worldwide on a production budget of about $50 million. It became the sixth highest-grossing film of 2018 worldwide and the highest-grossing musical biographical film of all-time. Despite mixed reviews for the film itself, Malek’s performance received critical acclaim. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film.

To prepare for the role of Mercury, Malek moved to London where he employed a dialect coach and movement coach and took piano and singing lessons. For four hours each day, he studied videos of Mercury with his movement coach, Polly Bennett. This included watching the 1985 Live Aid concert video on YouTube at least 1,500 times to perfect his performance for the movie. He also had to get used to singing and speaking with a set of false teeth that mimicked the singer’s overbite. Malek considers his performance as Mercury the most important in his career, saying: "This is a role I don’t think can be outdone. I think we’re always searching for that next great role, and I guess I’m fortunate that I’ve already been met with it. I’d like to think that there is more out there for me to do, and there is, but I do doubt that there is anything that lives up to how precious this role and this human being have been in my life."

Fresh off the success of Bohemian Rhapsody, Malek was tapped for the bad guy role in the 25th installment of the James Bond franchise, titled No Time to Die. It was reported that the actor refused to play a terrorist-type villain with a religious or ideological bent, a wish granted by director Cary Joji Fukunaga. On April 25, 2019, Malek was confirmed as the villain in No Time to Die, which has a release date of April 2020. He will also lend his voice to the upcoming comedy film The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle (2020).

Achievements

• 

  Malek is best known for his lead role in the drama-thriller series Mr. Robot. The series has earned critical acclaim. It has won the Golden Globe Award for Best TV drama series. Malek himself won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
  
  In 2018, he portrayed Freddie Mercury in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, for which he received critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and British Academy Film Award for Best Actor. He is the first actor of Egyptian heritage to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.
  
  Over time, his prominence in the industry has grown. Time magazine named Malek one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019 under the category of Artists.
  
  He has also garnered attention for his fashion sense, particularly for his bold color choices and "quirky touches". He was chosen (along with Boy George and A$AP Rocky) to be part of Dior Homme's Spring 2017 campaign. GQ Middle East launched in October 2018 with Malek on its first cover. Fashion commentators have included him on their "best-dressed" lists, often at red-carpet events. Placing him at number 29 on its list of Best Dressed Men 2019, GQ called his looks, "neat, elegant and perfectly put together, ... experimental on the surface, but underneath they’re also surprisingly approachable".

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Night at the Museum

    (Ben Stiller leads an all-star cast including Robin Willia...)

    2006
  • Short Term 12

    (Short Term 12 follows Grace (Academy Award Winner Brie La...)

    2013
  • The Master

    (Haunted by his past, WW-II veteran and drifter Freddie Qu...)

    2012
  • Da Sweet Blood of Jesus

    (Spike Lee's stylized thriller Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is ...)

    2014
  • Ain't Them Bodies Saints

    (Casey Affleck & Rooney Mara star in this critically-accla...)

    2013
  • Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

    (This is the best Night At the Museum yet as Larry (Ben St...)

    2014
  • Papillon

    (After being framed and ultimately imprisoned on Devil's I...)

    2017
  • Larry Crowne

    (Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts star in this optimistic comed...)

    2011
  • Oldboy

    (An everyday man has only five days and limited resources ...)

    2013
  • Battleship

    (An international naval coalition becomes the world's last...)

    2012
  • The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

    (In the fifth and final chapter of The Twilight Saga, the ...)

    2012
  • Bohemian Rhapsody

    (Rami Malek stars as Freddie Mercury in this electrifying ...)

    2018
  • Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

    (Night has fallen upon the Smithsonian Institution in Wash...)

    2009
  • Buster's Mal Heart

    (In this bold thriller spiked with dark humor, Rami Malek ...)

    2016
  • Need For Speed

    (A gritty race against time, starring Aaron Paul.)

    2014

• TV series

  • The Pacific

    (The epic 10-part HBO miniseries that tells the true stori...)

    2010
  • Mr. Robot

    ("Mr. Robot" follows Elliot (Rami Malek), a young programm...)

    2015

• Video game

  • Until Dawn 2015

Religion

Rami Malek was raised in a Coptic orthodox religion.

Views

Malek has lent his support to charities, such as the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation and the ACLU. In September 2018, Malek started working with the (RED) organization after being inspired by his Freddie Mercury role. As an ambassador to raise awareness and funds to help eliminate HIV/AIDS, Malek traveled to Eswatini to "learn more about the state of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa." During his visit, Malek said, "To collectively come together and tackle one of the arguably largest and most horrific diseases anyone has ever known... That can happen right now, I can't think of anything I would rather be a part of, more than fulfilling any personal dream or aspiration."

Quotations: "There are fears in everyone's job. Ours are in the limelight, and people think we're incredibly privileged or nuts to do what we do for a living."

"I'm constantly questioning the effects technology has had on our lives and the effect that monetary debt has had on all of us. We keep this as a dark little secret: 'This is how much interest I owe.'"

"I love film. I've always been enchanted by doing film. It's something I grew up watching - classics and directors I admire - so that's something I've always been passionate about."

"When I'm onscreen or acting, I swear, I can listen like nobody's business. I listen so well. Every word. Every action. Every physicality. I have a hard time doing that in real life."

Personality

Malek found growing up in America quite difficult from time to time. In fact, it was only when he got to high school that he found the confidence to embrace his identity and tell people that they were pronouncing his name wrong. The actor explained: “It only took me till 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.”

Malek revealed that he is currently searching for a home in the British capital after “falling in love” with the city while filming Bohemian Rhapsody.

Malek is a private person, he doesn’t like social media. The actor has previously stated that he finds things like Twitter extremely impersonal: “We as a society have a hard time connecting with one another. We technically can do it, but are we really connecting?” He has a professional account which the actor uses to connect with fans and to follow Mr. Robot.

The actor isn’t a fan of technology in general either – he barely uses his phone or computer anymore after working on Mr. Robot: “The more I’ve worked on this show, the more I refrain from getting on the computer or on my phone, because I realize just how fragile our information [is], and how susceptible it is to being compromised.”

Malek once confessed: “I’m an exuberant person. I thrive on affection. I like chitchat… One of the great things about living in New York is that you meet so many strangers - and I love encounters with strangers. I love meeting people and hearing their stories.”

Interests

• Artists

  Paul Thomas Anderson

• Sport & Clubs

  basketball, hockey

• Music & Bands

  Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Future Islands, Rihanna, Queen

Connections

Malek is notoriously private when it comes to his personal life. During his acceptance speech for Breakthrough Performance of the Year at the 30th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, Malek confirmed his relationship with his Bohemian Rhapsody co-star Lucy Boynton.

Father:

Said Malek

When Rami was still in high school, his parents dreamed of young Malek becoming a lawyer - so he joined the debate team to please them. In a magazine interview, Malek recalled that his parents wanted him to pursue a career in law or medicine, in order to “achieve a good financial and social status”. But despite joining the debate club, Rami himself was “crazy and stubborn” and decided to study fine arts and theatre.

However, his father gave Rami his blessing when he saw his son performing in a one-man school play entitled Zooman and the Sign. Malek once stated: “On stage, I’m having this moment with my dad with a bunch of other people [in the audience], but then I thought, wow, something really special is happening here.”

Malek recalled that this was the only time he ever saw his father growing emotional, and thus Rami realized that he was now free to pursue his acting dream.

Malek’s father sadly passed away before he could see his son triumph in the world of entertainment, but that didn’t stop Rami from mentioning his dad in his Oscars acceptance speech.

Mother:

Nelly Abdel-Malek

colleague:

Octavia Spencer

Brother:

Sami Malek

On “Jimmy Kimmell Live,” Rami shared a story about a time when he switched places with Sami to help him with a university assignment. Sami asked Rami to perform a Greek monologue for his class to get “the points [he needed] to get [his] degree.” After delivering the monologue in front of his brother’s entire lecture hall, Rami said the teacher “pulls me out of the class, she’s like ‘can you come outside?’ and she goes ‘How did you learn how to do that?’ and I go ‘Oh, it’s just a hobby.'” She then asked him to come back and perform it again for another class. Sami was in the wings during the segment with Jimmy Kimmell, and Rami took the opportunity to poke fun about the increased attention Sami was hoping for from women (as a result of Rami’s Mr. Robot fame).

The pair got away with the stunt and that was that. Sami now works as a teacher, but he can often be seen with his twin brother at parties and other events.

According to the Daily Mirror, Rami and Sami share a house together in Hollywood Hills.

Sister:

Yasmine Malek

colleague:

Alexander Skarsgård

colleague:

Robert Pattinson

colleague:

Joaquin Phoenix

colleague:

Casey Affleck

colleague:

Antonio Banderas

colleague:

Selena Gomez

colleague:

Tom Holland

Acquaintance:

Miley Cyrus

Acquaintance:

Liam Hemsworth

Acquaintance:

Demi Moore

girlfriend:

Lucy Boynton

Schoolmate :

Kirsten Dunst

Rami Malek went to high school with Kirsten Dunst, where he was a year ahead. They had a musical theater class together. The actress said that Rami was “the biggest flirt” back in the day.

Friend:

Nicole Kidman

References

• Rami Malek