Rami Said Malek (English: /ˈrɑːmi ˈmælɪk/; Arabic: رامي سعيد مالك, Egyptian Arabic: ; born May 12, 1981) is an American actor. He is known for portraying computer hacker Elliot Alderson in the USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and as Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), for which he won the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and British Academy Film Award for Best Actor. He has received many other accolades, and is the first actor of Egyptian heritage to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Time magazine named Malek one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019.
Born in Torrance, California, to Egyptian immigrant parents, Malek studied theater at the University of Evansville in Indiana. He began his acting career performing plays in New York City theaters before returning to Los Angeles, where he found supporting roles in film and television, including the Fox sitcom The War at Home (2005–2007), the HBO miniseries The Pacific (2010), and the Night at the Museum film trilogy (2006–2014). In 2021, he starred as a lead in the crime film The Little Things and the main antagonist of the James Bond film No Time to Die. He has done voicework for television and video games, as well as motion capture for the latter.
Early life
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 Said Malek was born in Torrance, California, on May 12, 1981, the son of Egyptian immigrant parents Nelly Abdel-Malek and Said Malek (d. 2006). He has said he is also "an eighth Greek". His parents and older sister left Cairo in 1978 after his father, a travel agent and tour guide, became intrigued with Western visitors. They settled in Sherman Oaks, mostly staying in the San Fernando Valley. As a child, Malek rarely ventured into Hollywood, "I grew up in the San Fernando Valley in LA, but somehow, I had no idea that I lived right next to Hollywood... I truly thought that that was a million miles away, and it's just a 10-minute drive". His father sold insurance and was a travel agent, while his mother worked as an accountant. Malek was raised in his family's Coptic Orthodox Christian faith, and spoke Egyptian Arabic at home until the age of four. He has an identical twin brother named Sami, who is younger by four minutes and later became an ESL and English teacher. His older sister, Yasmine, is an ER doctor. His parents emphasized to their children the importance of preserving their Egyptian roots, and his father would wake him up in the middle of the night to talk on the phone to his Arabic-speaking extended family in Samalut.
As a first-generation American, Malek found it difficult to assimilate during his childhood because of cultural differences, even spending most of his childhood having his name mispronounced: "It only took me 'til 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." As a result, he said it was difficult to form a self-identity as a child and gravitated towards "creating characters and doing voices" as he searched for an outlet for his energy.
Malek attended Notre Dame High School, where he was in the same class as actress Rachel Bilson. He is a year older than actress Kirsten Dunst, who also attended the school and shared a musical theater class with him. His parents harbored dreams of him becoming a lawyer, so he joined the debate team in his freshman year. Though he struggled to form arguments, his debate teacher noted his talent in dramatic interpretation and encouraged him instead to perform the one-man play Zooman and The Sign at a competition. Reflecting on the moment, he said, "On stage I'm having this moment with my dad with a bunch of other people , but then I thought, 'Wow, something really special is happening here.'" It was the first time he saw his father become emotional, and his parents' positive reaction to his performance left him feeling free to pursue an acting career. He and his brother were both involved in the school's drama department.
After graduating in 1999, Malek went on to study theater at the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana. He also spent a semester abroad in England, where he studied at Harlaxton College in Harlaxton, Lincolnshire. During the summer before his senior year, he interned at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, where he became an acquaintance of playwright August Wilson. Of his decision to attend the University of Evansville theater program, he said, "The level of talent at the University of Evansville was formidable from faculty to fellow actors. There's a commitment and dedication that the theater program required that unearthed a work ethic I didn't know I had." He completed his BFA in 2003. The college later honored him with a 2017 Young Alumnus Award, given to those who have "achieved personal success and contribute services to their community and to UE".