1. Mahershala Ali has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.
29 Facts About Mahershala Ali
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Mahershala Ali gained wider attention for supporting roles in the final two films of the original The Hunger Games film series, and in House of Cards, for which he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
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Mahershala Ali won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as a drug dealer in Moonlight and as Don Shirley in Green Book, becoming the first black actor to win two Academy Awards in the same category, and the second black actor to win multiple acting Oscars.
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Mahershala Ali won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program for executive producing We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest.
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Mahershala Ali was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for both performances.
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Mahershala Ali has played Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in the first season of the Netflix series Luke Cage, and voiced Aaron Davis in the animated films Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
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Mahershala Ali was born in Oakland, California, on February 16,1974, to Willicia Goines and Phillip Gilmore.
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Mahershala Ali was raised as a Christian in Hayward, California, by his mother, an ordained Baptist minister whose own mother, Evia Goines, was herself an ordained minister at Palma Ceia Baptist Church in Hayward.
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Mahershala Ali's father left the family when Ali was a toddler to pursue a career as a dancer; he appeared on Broadway, and died in 1994.
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Mahershala Ali attended St Mary's College of California in Moraga, California, where he graduated in 1996 with a degree in mass communication as a first-generation college student.
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Mahershala Ali entered SMC with a basketball scholarship and went by the name "Hershal Gilmore" when playing for the SMC Gaels.
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Mahershala Ali became disenchanted with the idea of a sports career because of the treatment given to the team's athletes and developed an interest in acting, particularly after taking part in a staging of Spunk, which later landed him an apprenticeship at the California Shakespeare Theater following graduation.
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Mahershala Ali had considered shortening his name for a while, saying that using his full first name was "a crazy thing to do considering that we're in Hollywood", although he had never been pressured by managers or agents to change it.
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Mahershala Ali decided to use a shorter version of his first name after being told that his full name was too long to fit on the poster for the film The Place Beyond the Pines.
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Mahershala Ali did not want the alternative of M Ali to represent himself on the poster, so he chose to adopt the shorter version of his name.
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Mahershala Ali elaborated in an interview to Vanity Fair in October 2016:.
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In 2017, Mahershala Ali joined the video game Madden NFL 18 story mode Longshot, in which he played Cutter Wade, the father of protagonist Devin.
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Mahershala Ali starred as Arkansas State Police detective Wayne Hays in the third season of the HBO series True Detective, which premiered on January 13,2019, in the United States.
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At the annual San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, Mahershala Ali was announced as being cast to play the supernatural superhero Blade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film of the same name, which was previously played by Wesley Snipes.
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Mahershala Ali was signed to Bay Area recording label Hieroglyphics Imperium during the late 2000s and recorded rap music as Prince Mahershala Ali.
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In 2015 Mahershala Ali appeared on rap artist Hus Kingpin album "House Of Cards" lending his voice to skits and rapping on the track entitled "House Of Card Gods" using his moniker.
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Mahershala Ali converted to Islam in 2000, changing his surname from Gilmore to Mahershala Ali.
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Mahershala Ali is married to Amatus Sami-Karim, an actress and musician.
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In October 2023, Mahershala Ali signed the Artists4Ceasefire letter calling for a ceasefire in the 2023 Gaza war.
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Mahershala Ali received Primetime Emmy and SAG Award nominations for his role in House of Cards.
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Mahershala Ali was nominated for the Primetime Emmy for playing Wayne Hays in the third season of the HBO crime anthology True Detective.
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Mahershala Ali received nominations for the BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his role in the science fiction romance Swan Song.
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Mahershala Ali received critical acclaim and won Academy Awards and SAG Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his performances as a drug dealer in the drama Moonlight and as Don Shirley in the biographical comedy-drama Green Book, as well as a BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for the latter.
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Mahershala Ali is the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar, as well as the second black actor to win multiple acting Oscars and the only black actor to win twice in the same acting category.