Age: 63
male
Shaun Toub is an Iranian-American film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Farhad in the 2004 movie Crash, as Rahim Khan in the movie The Kite Runner, and as Yinsen in the film adaptation of the Iron Man comic book series. Toub, who is of Persian Jewish background, was born in Tehran, Iran and raised in Manchester, England (his family left Iran before the 1979 revolution). At the age of fourteen, he moved to Switzerland and after a two year stay, he crossed the Atlantic to Nashua, New Hampshire to finish his last year of high school. His high school yearbook notes: "The funniest guy in school and the most likely to succeed in the entertainment world." After two years of college in Massachusetts, Shaun transferred to USC. Shaun is active in the Iranian Jewish community. Through various charity events and public speaking engagements, he inspires the community to embrace the arts, as the arts enhance everyday life. He has been a recipient of the Sephard award at the Los Angeles Sephardic Film Festival. Toub currently resides in Los Angeles.
Shaun Toub
Yehuda Shaalman
for Yehuda Shaalman in Golem and the Jinni
Suggested by lukespangler
Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay by a disgraced rabbi knowledgeable in the ways of dark Kabbalistic magic. She serves as the wife to a Polish merchant who dies at sea on the voyage to America. As the ship arrives in New York in 1899, Chava is unmoored and adrift until a rabbi on the Lower East Side recognizes her for the creature she is and takes her in. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped centuries ago in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard. Released by a Syrian tinsmith in a Manhattan shop, Ahmad appears in human form but is still not free. An iron band around his wrist binds him to the wizard and to the physical world. Chava and Ahmad meet accidentally and become friends and soul mates despite their opposing natures. But when the golem’s violent nature overtakes her one evening, their bond is challenged. An even more powerful threat will emerge, however, and bring Chava and Ahmad together again, challenging their very existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.
