
Age: 52
male
Mahershala Ali (/məˈhɜːrʃələ/ mə-HUR-shə-lə; born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore on February 16, 1974) is an American actor. He has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019, and in 2020, The New York Times ranked him among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century. After pursuing an MFA degree from New York University, Ali began his career as a regular on television series Crossing Jordan (2001–02) and Threat Matrix (2003–04), before his breakthrough role as Richard Tyler in the science fiction series The 4400 (2004–07). His first major film role was in the David Fincher-directed fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). He gained wider attention for supporting roles in the final two films of the original The Hunger Games film series and in House of Cards, for which he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Ali won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances as a drug dealer in the drama Moonlight (2016) and as Don Shirley in the comedy-drama Green Book (2018). He is the first Black actor to win two Academy Awards in the same category and the second Black actor to win multiple acting Oscars. Ali won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program for executive producing We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest (2020). In 2019, he played a troubled police officer in the third season of the HBO anthology crime series True Detective, and in 2020, he starred in the second season of the Hulu comedy-drama series Ramy. He was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for both performances. Ali has also played Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in the first season of the Netflix series Luke Cage (2016) and voiced Aaron Davis in the animated films Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). Description above from the Wikipedia article Mahershala Ali, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Mahershala Ali

Banzai, The Hyena
for Banzai, The Hyena in Lion King
Suggested by jakubduda

lions rule over the animal kingdom from Pride Rock. King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi present their newborn son, Simba, to the animals by Rafiki. Mufasa shows Simba the Pride Lands. Mufasa's younger brother, Scar, covets the throne and plots to get rid of Mufasa and Simba, so he may become king. He tricks Simba and his friend Nala into exploring a forbidden elephants graveyard. Mufasa hears about the incident from Zazu, and rescues them. Mufasa forgives him and explains that the great kings of the past watch over them from the night sky, and he will one day watch over Simba. Scar informs Mufasa of Simba's perill. Mufasa saves Simba but ends up hanging perilously from the gorge's edge. Scar refuses to help him, sending him falling to his death. He then convinces Simba that the tragedy was Simba's own fault and advises him to leave the kingdom and never return, orders the hyenas to kill him, but Simba escapes. Timon and Pumbaa rescue Simba, who collapses in a desert. Simba grows up in a oasis, living a life under the motto hakuna matata. Simba rescues Timon and Pumbaa from a hungry lioness and fall in love, and she urges him to return home, telling him that the Pride Lands have become a wasteland under Scar's reign. He visit Rafiki, who tells him that Mufasa's spirit lives in Simba, visits the ghost of Mufasa. simba and his friends fight hyenas and Scar. Rafiki presents Simba and Nala's newborn, continuing the circle of life.

