Alexander Siddig


Siddig el-Fadil, known professionally as Alexander Siddig, is a Sudanese-born British actor and director. Siddig is best known for his roles as Dr. Julian Bashir in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, former terrorist Hamri Al-Assad in the sixth season of the series 24, Doran Martell in Game of Thrones, Ra's al Ghul in Gotham, and Philip Burton in Primeval. He also starred in the films Syriana, Hannibal, A Lost Man, Cairo Time, and Inescapable.

Early life

Siddig el-Tahir el-Fadil el-Siddig Abdurrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim el-Mahdi was born on 21 November 1965 in Omdurman, Republic of Sudan to a Sudanese father, Tahir El Mahdi, and Gloria Birkett, an English model and theatrical press agent.
Through his father, Siddig is the nephew to Sadiq al-Mahdi, Prime Minister of Sudan during 19661967 and 19861989, and the filmmaker, poet and painter Hussein Shariffe. Siddig is the great-great-grandson of Muhammad Ahmad, a Nubian religious leader and founder of the Mahdist State who was proclaimed the Mahdi by his disciples. Through his mother, Siddig is the nephew of actor Malcolm McDowell and cousin of film director and screenwriter Charlie McDowell.
Siddig's parents met in the 1960s when his mother travelled to Sudan with a friend, who introduced her to Siddig's father. Initially living in Sudan, in 1967 the family relocated to London. Siddig initially spoke Arabic when he was a child, but by his second year of living in Britain, he had forgotten much of it. On the subject of his childhood, he stated in 2024, "I had a tough time at school and in my teens because being not-white in the UK during the 70s was prickly and you had to sort of negotiate that. I tried to push it aside, my race and my heritage … I would have had to go out of my way to be ethnic." In 1978, Siddig's mother married film director and producer Michael Birkett, who adopted Siddig. Thomas Birkett is Siddig's half-brother.
Siddig attended St Lawrence College, Ramsgate. He also studied geography and anthropology for a year at University College London before enrolling at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Career

Siddig's first acting role was at the age of 14 in a non-speaking role, playing King Tut in a BBC children's production. After leaving LAMDA, Siddig worked in theatre as both an actor and director. Siddig's first television role was a Palestinian man in a British six-part miniseries called The Big Battalions, and shortly afterward, he won the role of Prince Feisal in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, a 1990 telefilm sequel to Lawrence of Arabia starring Ralph Fiennes.
Siddig's role in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia brought him to the attention of Rick Berman, executive producer of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Berman originally considered Siddig for the role of Commander Benjamin Sisko, but decided in the end that Siddig was too young for the role and cast him as Dr. Julian Bashir. Siddig remained with Deep Space Nine for all seven seasons of the series. He also directed the episodes "Business as Usual" and "Profit and Lace". In 1995, Siddig also changed his stage name from Siddig El Fadil to Alexander Siddig.
After the completion of Deep Space Nine in 1999, Siddig began directing a film about the Soviet Night Witches. The film was never completed. Siddig told Bidoun magazine that demand for Islamic and Arabic character roles was increasing in both film and television after the September 11 attacks and that people began to approach him with projects within six months of the event. He played a mountain guide in the thriller film Vertical Limit, starring Chris O'Donnell, and Ajay in the postapocalyptic science-fantasy film Reign of Fire starring Christian Bale. In 2003, Siddig played the role of an Algerian secret agent on the trail of Islamists in the controversial episode "Nest of Angels" of the British television show Spooks. Siddig appeared in a cameo role as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the film The Hamburg Cell that premiered the following year.
In 2005, Siddig returned to the live stage, playing the role of Doctor Scott in a production of Whose Life Is It Anyway? starring Kim Cattrall that played at the Comedy Theatre in London. That same year, Siddig appeared as Saladin's aide Imad in Ridley Scott's 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven, and starred alongside George Clooney and Matt Damon as Prince Nasir in the film Syriana.
Siddig played the title role in the BBC's 2006 telefilm Hannibal. In 2007, he starred in A Lost Man a French-language film that screened at the Cannes Film Festival. That same year, he played the role of former terrorist Hamri Al-Assad in the sixth season of 24.
In 2009, he co-starred with Patricia Clarkson in the award-winning film Cairo Time as Tareq Khalifa, an Egyptian who battles his attraction to his friend's wife. Directed by Canadian director Ruba Nadda, the film won the prize for "Best Canadian Feature Film" at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. He also played Jamal in Julian Schnabel’s 2010 film Miral.
Siddig played Philip Burton in series four and five of the ITV science-fiction drama programme Primeval; both series aired in 2011. In 2012, Siddig again worked with director Nadda and played the starring role as a Syrian-Canadian businessman in the film Inescapable, which also starred Marisa Tomei and Joshua Jackson.
In 2013, Siddig narrated the BBC Two nature documentary series Wild Arabia and played the role of Minos in the first series of the BBC fantasy-adventure programme Atlantis.
From 2013 to 2015, Siddig played Aslan Al-Rahim in the BBC historical fantasy drama series Da Vinci's Demons. In 2015 and 2016, he appeared in the HBO series Game of Thrones; Siddig played the role of Doran Martell, the ruling Prince of Dorne, in the series' fifth and sixth seasons. He also played Reuben Oliver, an artist and suitor of Polly Shelby, in the third season of the British series Peaky Blinders. Siddig also provided the voice of Wolf, a character in the historical fantasy drama Tumanbay that aired on BBC Radio 4 between December 2015 and February 2016.
In 2017, Siddig joined the cast of the televisions series Gotham as League of Shadows leader Ra’s al Ghul and also played the part of Aristotle Onassis in the drama miniseries The Kennedys: After Camelot.
In 2019, he appeared in the Netflix series The Spy as Ahmed Suidani, a Syrian security officer. That same year, he appeared as Issouf Al Moctar in the second season of the Fox thriller series Deep State, and voiced Avi Singh in Star Wars: The Bad Batch.

Personal life

Siddig began a relationship with Nana Visitor whilst working on the set of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Their son, Django El Tahir El Siddig, was born on 16 September 1996 and Visitor's pregnancy was written into the storyline of Deep Space Nine. Django is Siddig's first child and Visitor's second son. The couple married in 1997 and divorced in 2001.
Siddig met his second wife, Shana Collier, while filming Cairo Time, for which she was an assistant producer; the couple married in 2015.
Siddig stated he was neither Christian nor Muslim in a 2001 letter to his fanclub, but in a 2004 letter described himself as having "quite recently discovered that he was Muslim".
In an April 2024 interview, Siddig described his sexuality as "not quite straight". He has described his hobbies as cooking, woodworking, gardening and computer games.
While filming Deep Space Nine he resided in Los Angeles; afterwards he relocated to New York City with his family. As of 2018, he resides in Massachusetts with his wife.

Filmography

Film

YearFilmRoleNotes
1987Sammy and Rosie Get LaidPartygoer
1992A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After ArabiaEmir Faisal ITV film
2000Vertical LimitKareem Nazir
2002Reign of FireAjay
2004The Hamburg CellKhalid Sheikh MohammedTV film
2005Kingdom of HeavenImad ad-Din al-Isfahani
2005SyrianaPrince Nasir Al-Subaai
2006HannibalHannibalTV movie
2007The Nativity StoryAngel Gabriel
2007The Last LegionTheodorus Andronikus
2008A Lost ManFouad Saleh
2008DoomsdayHatcher
2008EspionMalik
2009Cairo TimeTareq Khalifa
2010MiralJamal
20104.3.2.1.Robert
2010Clash of the TitansHermes
2012InescapableAdib Abdel-Kareem
2013The Fifth EstateDr. Tarek Haliseh
2013May in the SummerZiad
2017SubmergenceDr. Shadid
201921 BridgesAdi
2020SkylinesGeneral Radford
2023Deliver UsCardinal Russo