Saïd Taghmaoui (born July 19, 1973 in Villepinte, France) is a French-American actor and screenwriter. His parents were Moroccan immigrants of Berber ancestry from Essaouira who settled in France.
His Star-Making Role in French cinema was that of Saïd in La Haine, and he has built most of his career in the USA since the late 1990s. He became an American citizen in 2008.
Selected works:
- La Haine (1995) as Saïd
- Three Kings (1999) as Captain Said
- The Good Thief (2002) as Paulo
- Spartan (2004) as Tariq Asani
- I ♡ Huckabees (2004) as the Translator
- The Kite Runner (2007) as Farid
- House of Saddam (2008) as Barzan Ibrahim
- G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) as Alvin R. Kibbey / Breaker
- Lost (2009) as Caesar
- Conan the Barbarian (2011) as Ela-Shan
- American Hustle (2013) as Irv's Sheik Plant
- The Infiltrator (2016) as Amjad Awan
- Wonder Woman (2017) as Sameer
- John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) as The Elder
- The Family Plan (2023) as Auggie
Tropes in his works:
- Plays Great Ethnics: He's of Berber ethnicity but has played quite a number of Middle Eastern characters.
