About

Omar Elba (Arabic: عمر علبة) formerly Alexander Black; (born September 19, 1983) is an Egyptian-born American actor, best known for co-starring alongside Tom Hanks in the 2016 movie, A Hologram for the King. He also had a recurring role as Mark Green in the Limetown television series. Elba also starred in Tim (credited as Alexander Black), a 2016 short film about the Ego, Id and Superego. From 2016 until 2018, Elba went by the name Alexander Black to "avoid being typecast in an industry which was stereotyping ethnic actors." This led to at least one film critic believing that an American white actor had been cast for the role of "Yousef", the local Arab driver in A Hologram for the King. Description above from the Wikipedia article Omar Elba, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.