Mahershala Ali

Mahershala Ali is an American actor who has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. ¹ For Moonlight (2016) he became the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar, and he won the same award again for Green Book (2018), becoming the first black actor to win two Academy Awards in the same category. ¹ In 2020 The New York Times ranked him among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century, and Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019. ¹ Born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore and raised a Christian, he converted to Islam in 2000 and changed his surname to Ali; his Ahmadi affiliation is recorded in this museum exactly as the sources give it. ^{1 2}

He was born in Oakland, California, on 16 February 1974, to Willicia Goines and Phillip Gilmore. ^{1 2} His birth name, Mahershalalhashbaz, comes from the second child of the prophet Isaiah in the Book of Isaiah. ¹ He was raised as a Christian in Hayward, California, by his mother, an ordained Baptist minister, and his father left the family when he was a toddler to pursue a career as a dancer. ¹ He entered Saint Mary's College of California on a basketball scholarship, graduated in 1996 with a degree in mass communication, and after an apprenticeship at the California Shakespeare Theater earned a master's degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2000. ^{1 2}

He began as a regular on the television series Crossing Jordan (2001–2002) and Threat Matrix (2003–2004), and broke through as Richard Tyler in the science-fiction series The 4400 (2004–2007). ¹ His first major film role was in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), and he gained wider attention in the final two Hunger Games films and as Remy Danton in House of Cards, which brought him his first Primetime Emmy nomination. ^{1 2} For his performance as the mentor and drug dealer Juan in Moonlight (2016) he won the Academy Award, the SAG Award and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor, and for playing the pianist Don Shirley in Green Book (2018) he won a second Academy Award together with the Golden Globe and the BAFTA. ¹ He played the troubled detective Wayne Hays in the third season of True Detective (2019), and in 2020 he appeared in the second season of Ramy — as a Sufi leader, in Britannica's description — receiving Emmy nominations for both performances. ^{1 2} He voiced Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and its sequel (2023), starred in Swan Song (2021) and Leave the World Behind (2023), and played a crew member hunting genetically mutated dinosaurs in Jurassic World Rebirth (2025). ^{1 2} Announced in 2019 as the Marvel superhero Blade, he appeared only in a voice cameo in Eternals (2021), and in July 2026 he confirmed his exit from the troubled project. ^{1 2} In 2026 he starred in Bassam Tariq's action drama Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother as a devout Muslim who works as a hit man. ^{1 2} As a rapper under the name Prince Ali he released the albums Corner Ensemble (2006) and Curb Side Service (2007), and in 2020 he appeared on Riz Ahmed's album The Long Goodbye. ¹

Ali converted to Islam in 2000, changing his surname from Gilmore to Ali, and in 2001 he became an Ahmadi Muslim. ¹ Britannica independently records that while studying at New York University he "converted to the Aḥmadiyyah sect of Islam" and changed his last name to Ali. ² In July 2019 he addressed a reception of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Congressional Caucus at the U.S. Capitol, telling the gathering that it is shocking "that in 2019, we have political leaders who think that we can legislate or define love of God or faith". ³ The museum records his affiliation as he identifies it and as these sources attest it. It notes, without taking a position, that Ahmadi self-identification as Muslim is contested by many other Muslims: Catholic News Service reports that Ahmadis are often targeted in majority-Sunni countries such as Pakistan, where the constitution declares Ahmadis non-Muslim. ³ In interviews, Ali has described being subjected to racial profiling at airports and banks after the September 11 attacks. ¹

He is married to Amatus Sami-Karim, an actress and musician, and their daughter was born in February 2017. ¹ In October 2023 he signed the Artists4Ceasefire letter calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, in January 2024 he recited a poem by the Palestinian poet Mohammed al-Qudwa in a fundraising video for the poet's family, and in June 2025 he called for the release of the Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil. ¹

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