Tahar Rahim facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tahar Rahim
Rahim in 2014
Born	(1981-07-04) 4 July 1981 (age 43) Belfort, France
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2005–present
Spouse(s)	Leïla Bekhti ​ (m. 2010)​
Children	4

Tahar Rahim (born 4 July 1981) is a French actor. His breakthrough performance was in the 2009 French film A Prophet, for which he won the César Award for Best Actor and Most Promising Actor. He then starred as FBI agent Ali Soufan in the miniseries The Looming Tower and Judas in the film Mary Magdalene (both 2018).

Rahim garnered critical acclaim and nominations for the Golden Globe Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for portraying Mohamedou Ould Salahi in The Mauritanian (2021). He received another Golden Globe Award nomination for portraying Charles Sobhraj in the miniseries The Serpent (2021). Rahim has since portrayed Paul Barras in the period film Napoleon (2023) and has a role in the Sony Spider-Man Universe film Madame Web (2024).

Early life

Rahim was born in Belfort, France, to a family from 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 passion and began to study film at the Paul Valéry University of Montpellier. His life as a film student was chronicled in a documentary by fellow Belfortain Cyril Mennegun titled "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 Canal+ 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. Rahim 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 2007 horror movie Inside starring Béatrice Dalle, he went through a gruelling three months of auditioning. After eight callbacks, he landed his breakthrough role.

Rahim in 2012

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 Rahim 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.

In 2015, he was selected to be on the jury for the Un Certain Regard section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and later 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.

Rahim played Paul Barras in Ridley Scott's Napoleon, starring Joaquin Phoenix, in 2023 for Apple TV+. He played the character Ezekiel Sims in the Sony's Spider-Man Universe film Madame Web. In 2023, Rahim was announced to be playing French singer Charles Aznavour.

Personal life

Rahim is married to fellow French actress Leïla Bekhti, whom he met while filming A Prophet in 2007. Together they have four children.

In June 2024, Rahim signed a petition addressed to French President Emmanuel Macron demanding France to officially recognize the State of Palestine.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Tahar l'étudiant	Tahar	Docufiction
2007	Inside	A policeman
2009	A Prophet	Malik El Djebena
2011	The Eagle	Prince of the Seal People	Lines in Pictish language
2011	Les Hommes libres	Younes
2011	Love and Bruises	Mathieu
2011	Black Gold	Prince Auda
2012	Our Children	Mounir
2013	The Past	Samir
2013	Grand Central	Gary
2013	The Informant	Redjani Belimane
2014	The Cut	Nazaret Manoogian
2014	Samba	Wilson
2014	Le Père Noël	Le Père Noël
2015	The Anarchists	Jean Albertini
2016	Daguerrotype	Jean	Also known as The Woman in the Silver Plate
2016	Heal the Living	Thomas Rémige
2017	The Price of Success	Brahim Mecheri
2018	Mary Magdalene	Judas
2018	Treat Me Like Fire	Abel
2019	The Kindness of Strangers	Marc
2021	The Mauritanian	Mohamedou Ould Salahi
2023	Napoleon	Paul Barras
2024	Madame Web	Ezekiel Sims
2024	Smiling Hacker	Hamza Bendelladj	Post-production
TBA	Monsieur Aznavour	Charles Aznavour	In production

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Television

Theatre

• 2007 – 2008: Libres sont les papillons in the role of the blind character Benjamin. The play was an adaption from its original English into French of Butterflies are free written by Leonard Gershe by Hélène Zidi-Chéruy who also directed and staged it at the Côté Court Theater, 11th arrondissement of Paris.

Accolades

See also

In Spanish: Tahar Rahim para niños