Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Baron Cohen is an Emmy-nominated British comedian best known for his comedy characters Ali G (a lower-class white male who acts like a Jamaican Londoner), Borat (an inept, perverted, and anti-Semitic Kazakhstani television reporter), and Bruno (a blatantly homosexual Austrian fashion expert).
Sacha was born on October 13, 1971 in Staines, Surrey, southern England to a Persian family. He is the second of three sons.
His comfortable middle-class Jewish family were able to afford to send him to the best schools in the United Kingdom including Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boy’s School in Elstree and Christ’s College in Cambridge.
While in college Sacha studied history, specifically black and Jewish cultures. He wrote his thesis on the Jewish involvement in the American Civil Rights movement, focusing especially on the 1964 murders of civil rights activists and workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
In 1989 Sacha ignited his passion for acting by joining the Habonim Dror (loosely translated as The Freedom Builders) Jewish Youth Group, and appeared in Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues. He became an outstanding ga-ga (a type of dodgeball) player while continuing his university studies.
He also acted in plays such as Cyrano de Bergerac and Fiddler on the Roof with the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club.
When British Channel 4 retired the series, The Word, the station put out an open call to seek a replacement. Sacha applied by sending a tape of himself as Borat. The producers were impressed, but weren’t ready to hire him yet.
In 1998 the station contacted Sacha because they needed to fill a special report spot on The 11 O’Clock Show. Sacha introduced television executives to his character, Ali G. The executives liked what they saw so much that soon Sacha had a spot as the “Voice of Youth” on the show.
Sacha’s Ali G character became so popular that the Channel 4 executives decided to give him his own show. Da Ali G Show debuted in 2000 shortly after he released his bestseller video, Ali G, Innit, in 1999 as a way to promote the show. In 2000, Ali G appeared in Madonna's music video "Music". In 2001 the show was named Best Comedy (Program or Series) at the BAFTA awards. Because Da Ali G Show was so successful, Sacha was encouraged to release two more videos, Ali G, Aiii (2000) and Ali G: Bling Bling (2001), as well as a full-length feature in 2002 called Ali G Indahouse.
In 2003 Da Ali G Show came to the American viewing public on HBO. During episodes of his show he was seen interviewing many celebrities in an attempt to make complete idiots of them. His interviews included, Donald Trump, Buzz Aldrin, Shaquille O'Neal, Newt Gingrich and David Beckham.
Sacha has presented the MTV Europe Music Awards twice, first as Ali G on November 8, 2001 in Frankfurt, Germany, and then on November 8, 2005 in Lisbon, Portugal as Borat. He also appeared in the 2006 MTV Movie Awards as Borat, but was booed off stage. His character’s appearance was then cut from any re-broadcasts of the award ceremony.
On November 3, 2006 Sacha released a feature film about his Borat character, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. It’s about the fictional reporter’s obsession with the idea of marrying Pamela Anderson as he travels across the United States in an ice cream van.
Sacha is engaged to Australian actress Isla Fisher who has pledged to convert to Judaism before their wedding. In early 2007 Isla, and fiance Sacha, announced that they were expecting the birth of their first baby in late 2007. The couple welcomed their first child into the world in Los Angeles on October 17th 2007 and named the baby girl Olive.
In early 2008 Sacha took on what is perhaps his first vaguely straight role in Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, in which he is eventually murdered by the tar of the movie Johnny Depp (the demon barber). It also saw Sacha starring along side other British actors Alan Rickman and Helena Bonham Carter. Although the Golden Globe Awards were cancelled in 2008 it didn't prevent the movie from picking up an award for the best movie in the comedy/musical category. |
