Sacha Baron Cohen Biography

Before he was Borat on the big screen, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen made his fame playing the goofy television interviewer Ali G, a dimwitted hip-hop poseur with a cockney accent.

Ali G appeared on The 11 O’Clock Show (1998) and Da Ali G Show (2000-03), where he duped prominent Britons and Americans into participating in TV interviews.

Ali G’s extreme ignorance and the earnest exasperation of the unsuspecting interviewees was the source of much hilarity, and Da Ali G Show became a hit, first in the U.K. and then in the United States.

Baron Cohen then expanded his phony-character repertoire to include Borat Sagdiyev, a TV reporter from Kazakhstan, and a flamboyant Austrian fashionista named Bruno.

As Ali G, Baron Cohen starred in the feature film Ali G Indahouse (2002), and as Borat he starred in the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006).

Many years and projects later, Baron Cohen made a Borat sequel, 2020’s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Both Borat films earned Baron Cohen Oscar nominations for writing. (Baron Cohen’s co-star, Maria Bakalova, was also nominated for an Oscar).

Baron Cohen was also nominated for an Oscar for his role as Abbie Hoffman in the 2020 movie The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Baron Cohen, who is Jewish, has been criticized for the anti-Semitism and misogyny that is part of the Borat schtick, but his fans argue that he uses politically charged language as a way to reveal the bigotry of others, especially Americans.

Baron Cohen has also done voice work for the movie Madagascar (2005, with Ben Stiller), and he appeared in the Will Ferrell comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Tim Burton‘s 2007 movie Sweeney Todd (starring Johnny Depp), the 2011 Martin Scorsese fantasy Hugo and the TV series The Spy (2019).

In 2012 he released another spoofy comedy, The Dictator, playing a bearded despot from North Africa who runs into trouble in New York City.