Sacha Noam Baron Cohen is a British actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer.
65 Facts About Sacha Baron Cohen
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Sacha Baron Cohen is best known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Bruno Gehard, and Admiral General Aladeen.
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Sacha Baron Cohen adopts a variety of accents and guises for his characters and interacts with unsuspecting subjects who do not realise they have been set up.
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Sacha Baron Cohen has appeared in dramatic films including Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Martin Scorsese's Hugo, Tom Hooper's Les Miserables, and Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7.
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Sacha Baron Cohen's voice acting roles include King Julien XIII in the Madagascar film series and Uncle Ugo in Luca.
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Sacha Baron Cohen created and starred in Da Ali G Show, receiving two BAFTA Awards.
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Sacha Baron Cohen has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Actors Branch since 2008.
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Sacha Noam Baron Cohen was born into a Jewish family in the Hammersmith area of London on 13 October 1971.
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Sacha Baron Cohen's mother, photographer Daniella, was born in British Mandatory Palestine in 1939.
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Sacha Baron Cohen's father, editor-turned-clothing store owner Gerald "Jerry" Baron Cohen, was born into a Belarusian family of Ashkenazi Jews in London and grew up in the Welsh town of Pontypridd.
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Sacha Baron Cohen has two older brothers: Erran, a composer with whom he often collaborates, and Amnon.
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Sacha Baron Cohen's cousins include autism researcher Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, playwright Dan Baron Cohen, and filmmaker Ash Baron-Cohen.
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Baron Cohen was first educated at the independent Catholic St Columba's College in St Albans, before moving on to attend the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree.
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Sacha Baron Cohen then studied History with a focus on antisemitism at Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1993 with upper-second-class honours.
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Sacha Baron Cohen 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, as acted in shows with the Labour Zionist youth movement Habonim Dror.
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Sacha Baron Cohen played the cello while growing up, and made his original television debut as a cellist on Fanfare for Young Musicians.
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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 hilarious and who managed to bridge the gap between comedy and satire".
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Baron Cohen sent in a tape of himself in the character of Kristo, an Albanian fictional television reporter, which caught the attention of a producer.
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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".
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Sacha Baron Cohen took clown training in Paris, at the Ecole Philippe Gaulier, studying under master-clown Philippe Gaulier.
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Baron Cohen made his first feature film appearance in the British comedy The Jolly Boys' Last Stand.
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Baron Cohen appeared during two-minute sketches as his fashion reporter Bruno on the Paramount Comedy Channel during 1998.
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Sacha Baron Cohen shot to fame with his comic character Ali G, a fictional stereotype of a 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.
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Sacha Baron Cohen won Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards, and at the British Academy Television Awards he was nominated for Best British Entertainment Performance.
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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.
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Sacha Baron Cohen's television show was exported to the United States in 2003, with new episodes set there, for HBO.
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The character remained dormant while Baron Cohen concentrated on his Ali G persona, but with the subsequent success of Ali G, Baron Cohen revisited his Borat character.
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Sacha Baron Cohen shared his nomination with the film's co-writers, Ant Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips.
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In 2007, Baron Cohen published a travel guide as Borat, with dual titles: Borat: Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of US and A and Borat: Touristic Guidings To Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
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On 21 December 2007, Baron Cohen announced he was retiring the character of Borat.
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In May 2009, at the MTV Movie Awards, Baron Cohen appeared as Bruno wearing a white angel costume, a white jockstrap, white go-go boots, and white wings; and did an aerial stunt where he dropped from a height onto Eminem.
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Baron Cohen landed with his face on Eminem's crotch and with his crotch in Eminem's face, prompting Eminem to exit the venue with fellow rappers D12.
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Baron Cohen played Admiral General Aladeen, a dictator from a fictional country called the Republic of Wadiya.
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On 26 February 2012, Baron Cohen was allegedly banned from attending the 84th Academy Awards in his role as Admiral General Aladeen but the rumour was denied by the Academy, saying "we haven't banned him, he is lying" but made it clear that "Cohen is not welcome to use the red carpet as a platform for a promotional stunt".
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Baron Cohen eventually appeared at the awards' red carpet with a pair of uniformed female bodyguards, holding an urn which he claimed was filled with the ashes of Kim Jong-il.
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The "ashes", which Baron Cohen admitted to Howard Stern on the Tuesday, 8 May 2012 episode of The Howard Stern Show was flour, were "accidentally" spilt onto Ryan Seacrest.
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Sacha Baron Cohen eventually did step down on 31 July 2018, leaving the seat vacant.
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Baron Cohen guest-starred in the fifth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, with Dustin Hoffman, as a guide to Heaven.
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Sacha Baron Cohen provided the voice of the ring-tailed lemur king, King Julien, in DreamWorks Animation's film series, Madagascar, and appeared as Will Ferrell's arch rival, the French Formula One speed demon Jean Girard, in the hit Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
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Sacha Baron Cohen appeared alongside Johnny Depp in the film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as Signor Adolfo Pirelli, co-starred in Martin Scorsese's adventure film Hugo, and portrayed Thenardier in the 2012 film version of the musical Les Miserables.
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Sacha Baron Cohen appeared as a BBC News Anchor in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.
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Baron Cohen has twice presented the MTV Europe Music Awards, first as Ali G on 8 November 2001, in Frankfurt, Germany, and then as Borat on 3 November 2005 in Lisbon, Portugal.
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Baron Cohen appeared out of character to accept an award at the British Comedy Awards in December 2006.
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Sacha Baron Cohen said at the time that Borat could not make it to the awards as "he's guest of honour at the Holocaust denial conference in Tehran", referring to the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust.
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In September 2010, representatives for Baron Cohen confirmed that he was set to play Freddie Mercury in the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic about the rock singer.
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Sacha Baron Cohen dropped out of the project in July 2013, citing "creative differences" between him and the surviving members of Queen.
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Baron Cohen shot a spread with supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio for Marie Claire magazine to promote the film Bruno.
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In 2010, Baron Cohen guest-starred in The Simpsons episode, "The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed", as Jakob, a quick-tempered Israeli tour guide.
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Sacha Baron Cohen is set to star opposite Keke Palmer in the David O Russell film Super Toys.
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Baron Cohen has been criticised for the racist or prejudiced comments his characters have made.
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The New York Times, among others, has reported that Baron Cohen replied: "I'd like to state that I have no connection with Mr Cohen and fully support my government decision to sue this Jew".
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On 26 September 2008, Baron Cohen walked onto the runway during the Agatha Ruiz de la Prada fashion show in Milan.
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Sacha Baron Cohen appeared on the stage with a blanket and items of clothing stuck to his velcro suit.
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On 22 May 2009, a charity worker at a seniors' bingo game sued Baron Cohen, claiming an incident shot for Bruno at a charity bingo tournament left her disabled.
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On 30 April 2010, Palestinian Christian grocer Ayman Abu Aita, of the West Bank and former member of Fatah, filed a lawsuit against Baron Cohen, alleging that he had been defamed by false accusations that he was a terrorist in the movie Bruno.
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For much of the early part of his career, Baron Cohen tended to avoid doing interviews out of character.
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Sacha Baron Cohen was interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered and did an interview with Rolling Stone, published in November 2006, that the magazine labelled as "his only interview as himself".
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Sacha Baron Cohen appeared in an interview out of character with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air on 4 January 2007.
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Baron Cohen was featured in the Time 100 list for 2007.
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In 2019, Baron Cohen was awarded the Anti-Defamation League's International Leadership Award for opposing bigotry and prejudice.
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In June 2020, Baron Cohen crashed the right-wing "March for Our Rights 3" protest in Olympia, Washington, a counter-protest to the March for Our Lives demonstration as a result of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
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Baron Cohen's security stopped the organizers from taking him off stage and turning off the power, and Baron Cohen was forced to flee in a private ambulance from the crowd.
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Baron Cohen first met Australian actress Isla Fisher at a party in Sydney in 2001, and they became engaged in 2004.
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Sacha Baron Cohen first acted in theatrical productions with the Labour Zionist youth movement Habonim Dror.
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Sacha Baron Cohen spent a year in Israel as a kibbutz volunteer at Rosh HaNikra and Beit HaEmek as part of the Shnat Habonim Dror, as well as taking part in the programme Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz for Jewish youth movement leaders.