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Mahershala Ali

Mahershala Ali

Birthday: 1974-02-16 | Place of Birth: Oakland, California, USA

Mahershala Ali (/məˈhɜːrʃələ/ mə-HUR-shə-lə; born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore on February 16, 1974) is an American actor. He has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019, and in 2020, The New York Times ranked him among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century. After pursuing an MFA degree from New York University, Ali began his career as a regular on television series Crossing Jordan (2001–02) and Threat Matrix (2003–04), before his breakthrough role as Richard Tyler in the science fiction series The 4400 (2004–07). His first major film role was in the David Fincher-directed fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). He gained wider attention for supporting roles in the final two films of the original The Hunger Games film series and in House of Cards, for which he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Ali won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances as a drug dealer in the drama Moonlight (2016) and as Don Shirley in the comedy-drama Green Book (2018). He is the first Black actor to win two Academy Awards in the same category and the second Black actor to win multiple acting Oscars. Ali won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program for executive producing We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest (2020). In 2019, he played a troubled police officer in the third season of the HBO anthology crime series True Detective, and in 2020, he starred in the second season of the Hulu comedy-drama series Ramy. He was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for both performances. Ali has also played Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in the first season of the Netflix series Luke Cage (2016) and voiced Aaron Davis in the animated films Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). Description above from the Wikipedia article Mahershala Ali, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2026
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

as    Uncle Aaron (voice)

2025
Jurassic World Rebirth

as    Duncan Kincaid

2023
Leave the World Behind

as    G.H. Scott

2023
Stand

as    Self - Actor

2023
Chimp Empire

as    Self - Narrator (voice)

2021
Swan Song

as    Cameron Turner

2019
Alita: Battle Angel

as    Vector

2018
Green Book

as    Dr. Don Shirley

2017
Adnis

as    Adnis

2017
Roxanne Roxanne

as    Cross

2016
Hidden Figures

as    Jim Johnson

2016
Moonlight

as    Juan

2016
Kicks

as    Marlon

2016
Free State of Jones

as    Moses Washington

2016
Race for the White House

as    Narrator

2016
Gubagude Ko

as    Ochoro

2014
Supremacy

as    Deputy Rivers

2013
Go for Sisters

as    Dez

2013
The Place Beyond the Pines

as    Kofi Kancam

2010
The Wronged Man

as    Calvin Willis

2010
Predators

as    Mombasa

2010
Predators: The Chosen

as    Mombasa

2010
Predators: Moments of Extraction

as    Mombasa (voice)