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 on July 4, 1981) is a famous French actor. He became well-known for his amazing acting in the 2009 French movie A Prophet. For this role, he won two big awards: the César Award for Best Actor and the César Award for Most Promising Actor. Later, he played an FBI agent named Ali Soufan in the TV series The Looming Tower and Judas in the film Mary Magdalene, both in 2018.

Tahar Rahim received great reviews and was nominated for important awards like the Golden Globe Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. These nominations were for his role as Mohamedou Ould Salahi in the movie The Mauritanian (2021). He also got another Golden Globe Award nomination for playing Charles Sobhraj in the TV series The Serpent (2021). More recently, Rahim has appeared as Paul Barras in the historical film Napoleon (2023) and Ezekiel Sims in the Sony Spider-Man Universe movie Madame Web (2024).

Early life

Tahar Rahim was born in Belfort, France. His family originally came from Oran, Algeria.

After finishing high school at the Lycée Condorcet in Belfort, Rahim first tried studying sports and then computer science. But he found these subjects boring. After two years of studying in Strasbourg and Marseille, he decided to follow his true passion: film. He began to study film at the Paul Valéry University in Montpellier. His time as a film student was even shown in a special TV show called "Tahar, student" in 2006. This show was made by Cyril Mennegun, who was also from Belfort.

In 2005, Rahim moved to Paris. He studied acting at the Laboratoire de l'Acteur with Hélène Zidi-Chéruy. To pay for his studies and living, he worked in a factory during the week and in a nightclub on weekends.

Career

In mid-2006, Tahar Rahim found an agent and got a role in a popular TV series called La Commune on Canal+. The script for this show was written by Abdel Raouf Dafri, who also wrote the first version of the script for A Prophet. Rahim later met director Jacques Audiard by chance when they shared a taxi. Rahim told Audiard he was a fan, and he was very surprised when Audiard remembered him and contacted him about the movie A Prophet.

After a small role in the 2007 horror movie Inside, Rahim went through a tough three months of auditions for A Prophet. After eight callbacks, he finally got the main role that made him famous.

Rahim in 2012

Rahim also starred in the film Love and Bruises, directed by Lou Ye. They likely met at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where they were both showing their movies. Love and Bruises is based on a true story.

Another movie he starred in was Free Men. This film tells the story of Si Kaddour Benghabrit, who founded the Great Mosque of Paris. It was directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi.

In 2015, Rahim was chosen to be a judge for a section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival called Un Certain Regard. After that, he starred in a European crime TV series called The Last Panthers.

In 2018, he played Judas in the movie Mary Magdalene. In the U.S., he had a main role as FBI agent Ali Soufan in The Looming Tower.

In 2021, he was nominated for a Golden Globe award for his role as Mohamedou Ould Salahi in The Mauritanian. Rahim also served as a judge at the 74th Cannes Film Festival.

Rahim played Paul Barras in Ridley Scott's movie Napoleon in 2023, which starred Joaquin Phoenix. He also played Ezekiel Sims in the Sony's Spider-Man Universe film Madame Web. In 2023, it was announced that Rahim would play the famous French singer Charles Aznavour in a new film.

Personal life

Tahar Rahim is married to another French actress, Leïla Bekhti. They met in 2007 while filming A Prophet. They have four children together.

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	Monsieur Aznavour	Charles Aznavour
2024	Smiling Hacker	Hamza Bendelladj	Post-production

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Television

Theatre

• 2007 – 2008: Libres sont les papillons (which means "Butterflies are Free"). Tahar played the blind character Benjamin. This play was an adaptation of the English play Butterflies are free by Leonard Gershe. Hélène Zidi-Chéruy directed and staged it at the Côté Court Theater in Paris.

Accolades

See also

In Spanish: Tahar Rahim para niños