Tahar Rahim (born 4 July 1981) is a French actor of Algerian descent. He is known for his starring role as Malik El Djebena in the 2009 award-winning French movie A Prophet by Jacques Audiard, FBI Agent Ali Soufan in The Looming Tower, Judas in the film Mary Magdalene, and Charles Sobhraj in The Serpent. Rahim garnered critical acclaim and nominations for the Golden Globe Award, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Filmography
  • 4.1 Film
  • 4.2 Television
  • 4.3 Theatre
• 5 Accolades
• 6 Notes
• 7 References
• 8 External links

Early life

Rahim was born in Belfort, France, into a family that had immigrated from the region of Oran, Algeria.

After earning a Baccalauréat at the Lycée Condorcet of Belfort, Rahim enrolled first in sports and then computer science programmes. After two subsequent years of boredom studying the subjects in Strasbourg and Marseille, Rahim decided to pursue his p*ion and began to study film at the Paul Valéry University of Montpellier. His life as a film student was chronicled in a do*entary by fellow Belfortain Cyril Mennegun *led "Tahar, student", aired on French TV channel France 5 in 2006.

Following this, Rahim moved to Paris in 2005 and studied drama at the Laboratoire de l'Acteur under Hélène Zidi-Chéruy while working in a factory during the week, and in a nightclub at weekends, to make ends meet.

Career

In mid-2006, after signing with an agent, Rahim won a part in the hit C*+ television series La Commune written by Abdel Raouf Dafri. Dafri penned the first draft of the script to A Prophet. Rahim then met Audiard when the two coincidentally shared a cab while leaving a set. Tahar introduced himself saying that "I knew it was Audiard and I said I was a fan but I think I was a bit silly" and was afterward very surprised that Audiard remembered him enough to contact him about A Prophet. After a two-line appearance in the 2008 horror movie Inside starring Béatrice Dalle, he went through a gruelling three months of auditioning. After eight callbacks, he landed his breakthrough role.

Rahim also starred in controversial Chinese director Lou Ye's film Love and Bruises. The director, twice banned from making movies by the Chinese government, likely met Tahar at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival where they were each presenting Spring Fever and A Prophet respectively. Love and Bruises is the adaptation of the banned biography of Jie Liu Falin.

Another project he starred in was Free men, the biopic about Si Kaddour Benghabrit, founder of the Great Mosque of Paris, directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi of Le Grand Voyage fame.

He was selected to be on the jury for the Un Certain Regard section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

He starred in the European crime drama television series The Last Panthers.

In 2018, he appeared as Judas in the film Mary Magdalene, written by Helen Edmundson. In the U.S., he had a starring role as FBI agent Ali Soufan in The Looming Tower.

In 2021, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for portraying the role of Mohamedou Ould Salahi in The Mauritanian. Rahim also served as a jury member at the 74th Cannes Film Festival.

In 2022, Deadline reported that he would play the role of Paul Barras in Ridley Scott's Napoleon portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in 2023, for Apple TV+.

He is due to appear with Anne Hathaway in Rebecca Miller's upcoming film She Came to Me.

Personal life

Rahim is married to fellow French-Algerian actress Leïla Bekhti, whom he met while filming A Prophet in 2007. Together they are parents to a son, Souleymane, born in July 2017 and a daughter, born in February 2020.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

• 2007 – 2008: Libres sont les papillons in the role of the blind character Benjamin. The play was written by Leonard Gershe, directed by Hélène Zidi-Chéruy and staged at the Côté Court Theater, 11th arrondis*t of Paris.

Accolades

Notes

References

External links

• Tahar Rahim at IMDb