Profile Text
Malek in 2014, photo by Prphotos.com
Birth Name: Rami Said Malek
Place of Birth: Torrance, Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Birth: May 12, 1981
Ethnicity: Egyptian Coptic, as well as one eighth Greek
Rami Malek is an American actor and producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). He played musician Freddie Mercury in the film. He has also starred as Pharaoh Ahkmenrah in the Night at the Museum trilogy; and featured in the films Larry Crowne , Battleship , The Master (2012), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 , Ain’t Them Bodies Saints , Short Term 12 , Oldboy (2013), Need for Speed , Da Sweet Blood of Jesus , Buster’s Mal Heart , Papillon (2017), Dolitle (2020), The Little Things (2021), No Time to Die , Amsterdam (2022), Oppenheimer , The Amateur , and Nuremberg (2025); as well as on the shows Over There , The War at Home , 24 , The Pacific , The Legend of Korra , Mr. Robot , Blackout , and BoJack Horseman .
Rami’s parents, Nelly Abdel-Malek and Said Malek, are Egyptian immigrants, who came to the U.S. in 1978. He has said that he is also of one eighth Greek ancestry. His family is Coptic Christian. He has stated that he speaks Arabic “like a 10 year old” and that he grew up watching Egyptian movies with his parents.
Rami is the second male born in 1980 or after to have won an acting Oscar ( Eddie Redmayne , for The Theory of Everything , 2014, was the first).
Rami has a family background in the town Samalut, Egypt. He has said :
There’s no first-generation, or second-generation removed. I am Egyptian. I grew up listening to Egyptian music. I loved Umm Kulthum. I loved Omar Sharif… These are my people. I feel so gorgeously tied to the culture and the human beings that exist there. I acknowledge that I have a different experience, but I am so enamoured and intertwined with Egyptian culture. It is the fabric of who I am.
There’s no first-generation, or second-generation removed. I am Egyptian. I grew up listening to Egyptian music. I loved Umm Kulthum. I loved Omar Sharif… These are my people. I feel so gorgeously tied to the culture and the human beings that exist there. I acknowledge that I have a different experience, but I am so enamoured and intertwined with Egyptian culture. It is the fabric of who I am.
Rami’s paternal grandfather was named Makhali Abdelmalek/Abdel Malek.
Rami’s paternal grandmother was named Juliette S. Guirguis.
Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com