Age: 38
male
Soufiane El Khalidy is a Moroccan-born French actor, filmmaker, and writer whose magnetic presence and cross-cultural artistry have made him one of the most distinctive international talents in contemporary cinema. Based in Paris and fluent in Arabic, French, and English, he bridges Hollywood, Europe, and the Arab world with a rare fusion of emotional authenticity, physical discipline, and cinematic charisma. El Khalidy’s screen career spans acclaimed productions on both sides of the Atlantic, including Ghosts of Beirut (Showtime / Paramount+), NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS), Mary opposite Anthony Hopkins, The Eight, Shockwave: Countdown to Disaster, De Gaulle: Part 1, and Klandestin. His athleticism and precision have allowed him to perform many of his own stunts, blending the intensity of an action performer with the sensitivity of a dramatic actor. Educated across three continents, El Khalidy studied filmmaking at Full Sail University in the United States, where he received the Global Achievement Scholarship for Excellence in Filmmaking. He also graduated from Al Akhawayn University in Morocco and successfully passed the preliminary auditions for lifetime membership at The Actors Studio in New York, a rare distinction that underscores both his technical mastery and artistic depth. As a filmmaker, his short Flags and Masks Down earned over twenty international nominations and official selections, including Best Short Film at the InterShort Online Film Awards (Los Angeles) and screenings at the Rock N Roll Film Festival – Roffeke (Kenya), Visionaria Film Festival (Siena, Italy), and GoldenSun Short Film Festival (Zebu). Praised for its bold direction and poetic symbolism, the film explores identity, resistance, and creative freedom. He also created and wrote the technothriller series La Marche Fantôme (Just Like You Imagined), nominated at the Widescreen Film & Script Festival in Toronto (2024), and wrote Jukebox Zero, a rock-infused drama that became a finalist at the Grand IndieWise Convention (Miami 2018) and a semi-finalist at the Los Angeles CineFest (2017). His literary debut, Les Riffs d’un Moroccan Rebel, reveals his poetic and philosophical side: a meditation on identity, exile, and artistic defiance that bridges cinema, literature, and music. El Khalidy’s artistic journey has been celebrated by Moroccan and international media. SNRT News described him as “the Agadir-native who climbed the Hollywood ladder,” while Yabiladi highlighted him as “a multitalented Moroccan filmmaker and actor working in Hollywood.” He has shared his creative philosophy on 2M TV’s InfosoirWeekend and in Morocco World News, reflecting on his path “from Agadir to Hollywood.” He is married to Nadia Benzakour, the acclaimed French actress known for Princes of the Desert (2023), SENECA: On the Creation of Earthquakes (2023), Sofia (2018), and HBO’s upcoming Privileges. Together they form a cosmopolitan creative duo whose work celebrates authenticity and cultural connection. El Khalidy is represented by Simon Allen at The Harter Allen Agency (UK & Europe), agent of actress Emmanuelle Seigner, and Emmanuelle Bourcy at Marceline Lenoir Agency (France).
The story focuses on imagined events surrounding the protagonist and real historical past of the still extant Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the oldest surviving Jewish illuminated texts. In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries...
