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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 Ezekiel Sims in the Sony Spider-Man Universe film Madame Web (2024).
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 docufiction 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.
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.[1]
Rahim also starred in Chinese director Lou Ye's film Love and Bruises. The controversial director had twice been banned by the Chinese government from making movies. The director likely met Rahim at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where they were presenting Spring Fever and A Prophet, respectively. Love and Bruises is the adaptation of the banned biography of Jie Liu Falin.
Rahim also starred in Free Men, the biopic about Si Kaddour Benghabrit, the French-Muslim founder of the Great Mosque of Paris, directed by Ismaël Ferroukhi of Le Grand Voyage fame.
In 2015, Rahim was selected to be on the jury for the Un Certain Regard section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. He 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. that year, he had a starring role as FBI agent Ali Soufan in The Looming Tower miniseries.
In 2021, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for portraying Mohamedou Ould Salahi in The Mauritanian, set among detainees at the US camp at Guantanamo. Rahim also served as a jury member at the 74th Cannes Film Festival.
Rahim played Paul Barras in Ridley Scott's Napoleon (2023), starring Joaquin Phoenix, 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 in the biopic film Monsieur Aznavour.
In June 2024, Rahim signed a petition addressed to French President Emmanuel Macron demanding France to officially recognize the State of Palestine.
| 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 Iscariot | |
| 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 | |
| 2025 | Alpha | Amin |
| +Key | Denotes works that have not yet been released |
| 2007 | La Commune | Yazid Fikry | 8 episodes |
| 2015 | The Last Panthers | Khalil | 6 episodes |
| 2018 | The Looming Tower | Ali Soufan | Míniseries; 10 episodes |
| 2020 | The Eddy | Farid | 3 episodes |
| 2021 | The Serpent | Charles Sobhraj | Miniseries; 8 episodes |
| 2023 | Extrapolations | Omar Haddad; Ezra Haddad | 3 episodes |
| 2021 | Best Actor in a Leading Role | |||
| Most Promising Actor | ||||
| 2025 | Monsieur Aznavour | Best Actor | ||
| 2021 | ||||
| 2022 | Best Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Television Film | |||
| 2021 | ||||
| 2014 | Grand Central | |||
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