Sacha Noam Baron Cohen - biography

Sacha Noam Baron Cohen (Hebrew: סשה נעם ברון כהן‎, born 13 October 1971) is a British comedian, actor, and writer. He is most widely known for his portrayal of three unorthodox fictitious characters Ali G, Borat and Brüno. In his routines, Baron Cohen's characters interact with unsuspecting people who do not realise they are being set up for comic situations and self-revealing ridicule.

Baron Cohen's work has been recognised with several Emmy nominations, an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, a BAFTA award, and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in the feature film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. After the release of the film Borat, Baron Cohen stated that because the public had become too familiar with the characters, he would retire Borat and Ali G. Similarly, after the release of Brüno, he has stated he would also retire the title character.

Family

Baron Cohen was born in Hammersmith, West London, England. His mother, Daniella, was born in Israel, while his father, Gerald, was originally from Pontypridd, Wales, Great Britain. Baron Cohen is the middle of three sons, with elder brother Erran and younger brother Amnon, and his family is Jewish. His paternal grandfather was born in Pontypridd, Wales, and his maternal grandmother, who now lives in Haifa, Israel, trained as a ballet dancer in Germany. Baron Cohen's brother Erran is a composer who has worked on several of his films, and his cousin is internationally renowned autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen.

Education

Baron Cohen first attended St Columba's College Prep School, St Albans, Hertfordshire, before moving on to attend Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, a private school in Elstree, Hertfordshire, near London. He went on to the University of Cambridge, entering Christ's College, Cambridge, where he read History under Niall Ferguson and wrote his thesis on Jewish involvement in the American Civil Rights movement, with emphasis on the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in Mississippi.

At the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, Baron Cohen acted in plays such as Fiddler on the Roof (in which he played Tevye) and Cyrano de Bergerac. While at Cambridge, he performed in Habonim Dror Jewish theatre performances.

Career

Early roles

After leaving university, Baron Cohen worked for a time as a fashion model, appearing in many fashion magazines. By the early 1990s, he was hosting a weekly programme on Windsor cable television's local broadcasts with Carol Kirkwood, who later became a BBC weather forecaster. In 1995, Channel 4 was planning a replacement for its series The Word, and disseminated an open call for new television presenters. Baron Cohen sent in a tape of himself in the character of Kristo, a fictional television reporter from Albania (who developed into the Kazakhstani Borat), which caught the attention of a producer. Baron Cohen bided his time by hosting Pump TV from 1995-1996. In 1996, he began presenting the youth chat programme F2F for Granada Talk TV. The late nineties saw Baron Cohen make his first feature film appearance in the British comedy The Jolly Boys' Last Stand, then in 2000 Baron Cohen played the part of Super Greg for a series of TV advertisements for Lee Jeans which never aired, yet the website for Super Greg created an internet sensation. He also attended Ecole Philippe Gaulier, studying under the great teacher and crediting Philippe Gaulier for enabling him to find the play and pleasure to create such characters as Ali G and Borat.