Personal life

Siddig was born in Sudan but has spent most of his life in England. He was born to an English mother who worked as a theatrical consultant and a Sudanese father. His maternal uncle is English actor Malcolm McDowell, with whom he appeared in 2008 in Neil Marshall's Doomsday, and his paternal uncle is the former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. He attended St Lawrence College, Ramsgate, Kent. He was credited under the shortened name Siddig El Fadil until October 1995, three seasons into his run on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, when he changed his stage name to Alexander Siddig (stating in an interview that 'Alexander' was chosen at random). On set, he became known as Sid. In 1996, Siddig and his co-star Nana Visitor started dating and the couple were married; their son, Django El Tahir El Siddig, was born on 16 September 1996. They divorced in 2001.

Career

Siddig attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) to study acting and after leaving LAMDA, Siddig did a season of stage work in Manchester. He also worked as a director in a small theatre in London. Siddig first appeared to television audiences as Prince Feisal in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, the 1990 TV sequel to Lawrence of Arabia.

Siddig's performance in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1992) brought him to the attention of Rick Berman who was creating the new series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993). Originally brought in to audition for the role of Commander Benjamin Sisko, Berman decided Siddig was too young for the role and cast him as Dr. Julian Bashir instead. The part had to be slightly rewritten for Siddig as the original "bible" had called for a Hispanic male to play the part, named Julian Amoros, although Berman reports that no other actors were considered for the role.

Since the end of the seven seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Siddig has made prominent appearances in films and television. Highlights include appearing as an Algerian secret agent on the trail of Islamists in the controversial episode "Nest of Angels" of the British television show Spooks (known as MI-5 in the US) in 2003. In 2005, he appeared as Saladin's aide, Imad, in Ridley Scott's film Kingdom of Heaven. He gave a critically lauded performance as Prince Nasir in Syriana, alongside George Clooney and Matt Damon. He played the title role in 2006's Hannibal - Rome's Worst Nightmare for the BBC (UK). Early 2007, Siddig joined the cast of Un Homme Perdu (aka A Lost Man) and he returned to American television in the role of former terrorist Hamri Al-Assad for the sixth season of 24. In 2009, he co-starred with Patricia Clarkson in the award-winning film Cairo Time (2009) as Tareq Khalifa, an Egyptian who battles his attraction to his friend's wife.

In August 2010, he expressed his doubts about resurrecting his character, Dr. Julian Bashir, from Deep Space Nine, stating that he has "other ambitions".

In 2013, Siddig appeared as a Syrian-Canadian in the IFC film Inescapable with Marisa Tomei and Joshua Jackson, and as King Minos in the BBC show Atlantis.

In 2015 he joined the cast of the HBO series Game of Thrones in season 5 as Doran Martell, the ruling Prince of Dorne.

Siddig's roles have often called for him to act out many different accents: he used Received Pronunciation (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Cockney (Reign of Fire), and an Algerian accent (Spooks) among others. He has also given performances in Arabic as the role required (Spooks, Syriana, 24, Inescapable, Un Homme Perdu) as well as French (Un Homme Perdu).

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1987	Sammy and Rosie Get Laid	Partygoer
1990	A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia	Emir Feisal I	TV film
2000	Vertical Limit	Kareem Nazir
2002	Reign of Fire	Ajay
2004	The Hamburg Cell	Khalid Sheikh Mohammed	TV film
2005	Kingdom of Heaven	Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani
2005	Syriana	Prince Nasir Al-Subaai
2006	Hannibal - Rome's Worst Nightmare	Hannibal	TV movie
2007	The Nativity Story	Angel Gabriel
2007	The Last Legion	Theodorus Andronikus
2008	A Lost Man	Fouad Saleh
2008	Doomsday	Hatcher
2008	Espion(s)	Malik
2009	Cairo Time	Tareq Khalifa
2010	Miral	Miral's father
2010	4.3.2.1	Robert
2010	Clash of the Titans	Hermes
2012	Inescapable	Adib Abdel-Kareem
2013	The Fifth Estate	Dr. Tarek Haliseh
2013	May in the Summer	Ziad

Television series

Year	Production	Role	Notes
1992	Big Battalions	Yousef	TV miniseries, 1 episode
1993-1999	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Dr Julian Bashir
1993	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Dr Julian Bashir	Episode: "Birthright"
2003	Spooks (titled MI-5 in the US and France)	Ibhn Khaldun	Episode: "Nest of Angels"
2005	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Mr. Shaitana	Episode: "Cards on the Table"
2007	24	Hamri Al-Assad	7 episodes
2008	Merlin	Kanan	Episode: "The Moment of Truth"
2009	Waking the Dead	Dr Mohammed	2 episodes ("Endgame, Part 1" and "Endgame, Part 2")
2010	Strike Back	Zahir Sharq	2 episodes ("Part 5" and "Part 6", Sky1 TV series)
2011	Primeval	Philip Burton	Episode 24-36 (series 4 & 5)
2012	True Love	Ismail	Episode: "Sandra"
2013-2014	Da Vinci's Demons	Al-Rahim	13 episodes
2013	Wild Arabia	Narrator	Documentary
2013	Atlantis	Minos	8 episodes
2015-2016	Game of Thrones	Doran Martell	6 episodes Season 5-6
2015	Tut	Amun
2015	Bar Rescue	Himself	Episode: "Brokedown Palace"
2016	Peaky Blinders	Ruben Oliver

Other appearances

• ExtraOrdinary as King Tut (1979, uncredited and non-speaking role)
• James Cameron's Titanic Explorer video game (1997) - various voices
• Whose Life Is It Anyway?, stage play (2005) in London - Dr Scott
• Family Guy season 4, episode 2, "Patriot Games" (2006) - Voice of one of the London Silly Nannies
• Doctor Who audioplays "Sisters of the Flame" and "Vengeance of Morbius" (both 2008) - Rosto; "The Wreck of the Titan" (2010) - Captain ; "1001 Nights" (2012) - Sultan
• Holy Warriors, stage play (2014) in London - Saladin
• Bar Rescue (2015) - Guest in season 4 episode "Brokedown Palace"
• Tumanbay, radio drama (2015) on BBC Radio 4 - Wolf

[ Source: Wikipedia ]