Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Noam Baron Cohen ( SASH-ə; born 13 October 1971) is an English actor and comedian. Known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen, he has received various accolades throughout his career, including two British Academy Television Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and six Primetime Emmy Awards.

Baron Cohen began his career in television late-night series The 11 O'Clock Show (1998–1999), winning the British Comedy Award for Best Male Newcomer, before creating and starring as his character Ali G in the satirical sketch comedy show Da Ali G Show (2000–2004), for which he received two British Academy Television Awards. He created and starred in the Showtime satirical mockumentary series Who Is America? (2018), for which he earned a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. He portrayed Eli Cohen in the Netflix limited series The Spy (2019), earning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film nomination, and acted in the Apple TV+ limited series Disclaimer (2024). He starred as Mephisto in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with the miniseries Ironheart (2025).

Baron Cohen wrote and starred in Borat (2006) and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020), which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. For his portrayal of Abbie Hoffman in the legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also wrote, produced and starred in the comedy films Ali G Indahouse (2002), Brüno (2009), The Dictator (2012) and Grimsby (2016) and has acted in drama films such as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Hugo (2011) and Les Misérables (2012).

He voiced King Julien XIII in the Madagascar film series (2005–2012) and Uncle Ugo in Luca (2021). He has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Actors Branch since 2008.

Early life and education

Sacha Noam Baron Cohen was born into an English Ashkenazi Jewish family in the Hammersmith area of London on 13 October 1971. His mother, photographer Daniella (née Weiser), was born in British Mandatory Palestine in 1939 to German Jewish parents. His father, editor-turned-clothing-store owner Gerald "Jerry" Baron Cohen (1932–2016), was born into a Belarusian Jewish family in London and grew up in the Welsh town of Pontypridd. Baron Cohen's paternal grandfather, Morris Moses Cohen, added "Baron" to his surname. His maternal grandmother, Liesel (née Levi), lived in Haifa and trained as a ballet dancer in Germany before fleeing the Nazis in 1936. He has two older brothers: Erran, a composer with whom he often collaborates, and Amnon. His cousins include autism researcher Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, playwright Dan Baron Cohen, and filmmaker Ash Baron-Cohen.

Baron Cohen was educated at the independent Catholic St Columba's College in St Albans, before moving to the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree. He then studied history with a focus on antisemitism at Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1993 with upper-second-class honours. As an undergraduate he wrote his thesis on the role of Jewish activists in the American civil rights movement. He was a member of the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, where he performed in shows such as Fiddler on the Roof and Cyrano de Bergerac, and acted in shows with the Labour youth movement Habonim Dror. He played the cello while growing up and made his television debut as a cellist on Fanfare for Young Musicians.

Career

Early roles

Baron Cohen grew up as a fan of Monty Python and Peter Cook, but his greatest comedic influence was Peter Sellers, whom he saw as "this incredibly realistic actor, who was also hilarious and who managed to bridge the gap between comedy and satire". Known for portraying a wide range of comic characters using different accents and guises, Sellers was referred to by Baron Cohen as "the most seminal force in shaping [his] early ideas on comedy". After leaving university, Baron Cohen worked for a time as a fashion model. By the early 1990s, he was hosting a weekly programme on Windsor cable television's local broadcasts with Carol Kirkwood, who later became a BBC weather forecaster. In 1995, Channel 4 was planning a replacement for its series The Word, and disseminated an open call for new television presenters. Baron Cohen sent in a tape of himself, which caught the attention of a producer. Baron Cohen hosted Pump TV from 1995 to 1996.

In 1996, Baron Cohen began presenting the youth chat programme F2F for Granada Talk TV and had a small role in an advertisement for McCain Microchips, as a chef in a commercial entitled "Ping Pong". He took clown training in Paris, at the École Philippe Gaulier, studying under master-clown Philippe Gaulier. Of his former pupil, Gaulier says: "He was a good clown, full of spirit" while Baron Cohen remarks of Gaulier, "Without him, I really do doubt whether I would have had any success in my field". He left TV journalist Rob Burley a note reading "Dear Rob, good luck baby, have fun and things, see you soon, Sacha.", when Burley left the programme. Baron Cohen made his first feature film appearance in the British comedy The Jolly Boys' Last Stand (2000). Also in 2000, he played the part of Super Greg for a series of TV advertisements for Lee Jeans; the advertisements never aired, but the website for Super Greg created an internet sensation.

Characters

Ali G

Baron Cohen appeared during two-minute sketches as his fashion reporter Brüno on the Paramount Comedy Channel during 1998. He shot to fame with his comic character Ali G, a fictional stereotype of a white British suburban male "chav" who imitates urban black British hip hop culture and British Jamaican culture, as well as speaking in rude boy-style English with borrowed expressions from Jamaican Patois. Hailing from Staines, a suburban town in Surrey, to the west of London. Ali G began appearing on the British television show The 11 O'Clock Show on Channel 4, which first aired on 8 September 1998. A year after the première of the show, GQ named Baron Cohen comedian of the year. He won Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards, and at the British Academy Television Awards he was nominated for Best British Entertainment Performance.

Da Ali G Show began in 2000, and won the BAFTA for Best Comedy in the following year. Also in 2000, Baron Cohen as Ali G appeared as the limousine driver in Madonna's 2000 video "Music", directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who was also responsible for directing the titles for Da Ali G Show. Baron Cohen is a supporter of the UK charity telethon Comic Relief, which is broadcast on the BBC, and as Ali G interviewed David Beckham and wife Victoria in 2001.

In a 2001 Channel 4 poll Ali G was ranked eighth on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. In 2002, Ali G was the central character in the feature film Ali G Indahouse, in which he is elected to the British Parliament and foils a plot to bulldoze a community centre in his home town, Staines. His television show was exported to the United States in 2003, with new episodes set there, for HBO.

At the 2012 British Comedy Awards, 13 years after winning Best Newcomer at the 1999 Comedy Awards, Baron Cohen accepted the Outstanding Achievement Award from Sir Ben Kingsley in the guise of Ali G." In 2013, he received the BAFTA Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy.

Ali G's interviews with notable figures, especially politicians, gained notoriety partly because the subjects were not aware that Ali G, rather than being a real interviewer, was a comedic character. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Baron Cohen would always enter the interview area dressed as Ali G, carrying equipment while acting like an inconspicuous crew member. The crew would be accompanied by a man in a suit and tie, leading the subject to believe that this was the person who would interview them. Baron Cohen, as Ali G, would sit down to ask the interviewee some preliminary questions to give them the impression that this was a test run before the well-dressed man conducted the real interview; this continued until a few moments before the cameras started filming, revealing the suited man as the director and Ali G as the interviewer, granting Baron Cohen the element of surprise as the interviewee would be less likely to opt out of the interview so close to its start.