Mahershala Ali is an American Oscar-winning actor and a rapper from Oakland California who earned prominence from the roles in the Netflix series 'House of Cards' and 'Luke Cage,' He is two times Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in Moonlight and Green Book.
Ali is widely known for his roles on the Netflix series House of Cards and Luke Cage and films like: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Place Beyond the Pines and Hidden Figures.
Ali was born as Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore on February 16, 1974, in Oakland, California to mother, Willicia Gilmore, an ordained minister, and father, Phillip Gilmore, an actor on Broadway. He is an American and belongs to Black ethnicity. He follows Islam and Zodiac sign is Aquarius. Ali attended St. Mary’s College of California on a basketball scholarship as he was very good at basketball. He graduated in 1996 with a BA degree in mass communications. He was exposed to the acting industry through his father and later he chose his father's footsteps. He earned his MFA degree in acting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2000.
Ali began his acting career from his television debut in the NBC crime-drama series, Crossing Jordan as “Dr. Trey Sanders” from 2001 to 2002 He followed up with guest appearances in NYPD Blue (2002) and CSI (2003). Ali was cast as a series regular in the drama series Threat Matrix (2003-04). His breakthrough was after he starred as “Richard Tyler” in the sci-fi series, The 4400 (2004-07). Ali landed his first major film role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. He followed up with small roles in Predators (2010) with Adrien Brody, The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) with Ryan Gosling and The Hunger Games series with Jennifer Lawrence.
His recognition grew further from the role of “Remy Danton” in the Netflix drama series, House of Cards (2013-16). Other notable shows include Treme (2011-12), Alphas (2011-12) and Luke Cage (2016). Drama film, Moonlight (2016), earned Ali an Academy Award for best supporting actor. His role of “Juan” also earned him a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award nomination. Ali is the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar. His recent works include Hidden Figures (2016) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019).
Ali has been nominated for many awards during his career. He won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in Moonlight and the Green Book.
Ali is a married man. He married Amatus Sami-Karim in 2013 and the couple welcomed a daughter named Bari in 2017. outside of the marital life, he is quite silent in his relationships.
Ali's estimated net worth is $8Million according to celebrity net worth. His salary is still not known. His major source of income is his acting career. The information about his houses, cars and other businesses are yet not available.
Mahershala Ali stands 6 feet 1.5inch tall and weighs around 85kg. His body measurements are 16-44-34(Bicep-chest-waist). His eyes and hair color are dark browns brown.
His Instagram has over 686K followers but he does not seem to care much about social media.