Sacha Baron Cohen

This article is about the English comedian. For the figure skater, see Sasha Cohen.

Sacha Baron Cohen
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91m)
Spouse	Isla Fisher (engaged)

Sacha Noam Baron Cohen (born October 13, 1971) is an English comedian and actor most noted for his comic characters Borat (a Kazakh reporter), Ali G (a junglist from Staines, England) and Bruno (a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion reporter).

All three characters are featured in Da Ali G Show, a programme in which Baron Cohen conducts interviews as one of his three characters, with people who ostensibly believe that the interviews are sincere and legitimate.

His work has been recognized with several Emmy nominations, an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, a BAFTA award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in the feature film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Biography

Family

Baron Cohen was born in Hammersmith, London, England to an Orthodox Jewish family. "Baron" is a title of nobility, Granted to his father for his service in the RAF in WWII. He is the youngest of three sons of parents Gerald Baron Cohen and Daniella Weiser. His father, originally from Wales, owns a menswear shop in Piccadilly. His paternal grandfather was born in Pontypridd. His mother, who teaches a school of movement, was born in Israel. His maternal grandmother, who now lives in Haifa, Israel, was an acclaimed ballet dancer from Germany. His brother Erran Baron Cohen, a composer and trumpet player with Middle Eastern influences and a founding member of the British electronica world-music group Zöhar, lent his talents to the Borat film.

Baron Cohen is a cousin of University of Cambridge Professor of Developmental Psychopathology Simon Baron-Cohen

Education

The Baron Cohens enjoyed a comfortable standard of living. Sacha attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, a private school in Elstree. The same school was also attended by fellow Jewish comedians Matt Lucas and David Baddiel. He also attended St Columba's College in St Albans. He then attended Christ's College at the University of Cambridge where he studied history under Niall Ferguson and wrote his thesis on Jewish involvement in the American Civil Rights movement, with emphasis on the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Mississippi. [2]

At the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, Baron Cohen acted in plays such as Cyrano de Bergerac and Fiddler on the Roof, in which he played Tevye. His long-time collaborator Dan Mazer also attended the University of Cambridge and was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, and although Baron Cohen himself was not a member, he performed in at least one Footlights presentation as well as other shows (including singing the part of Guy Fawkes in the musical Gunpowder, Treason and Plot).

Israel and Judaism

Baron Cohen first acted in theatrical productions featuring the youth movement Habonim Dror.

He spent a year in Israel at Kibbutz Rosh HaNikra as part of the Habonim Dror Shnat, before matriculating to university.[3]

According to Cohen, "I wouldn't say that I am a religious Jew, but I'm still proud to be Jewish.". However, he keeps kosher and generally observes the Jewish Sabbath, refusing to answer the phone on Shabbat. [4][5][6]

As a jest, while playing the anti-Semitic character Borat, Baron Cohen frequently speaks in Hebrew. He also sings the lyrics from an old Hebrew folk song in the Borat film, and identifies his country's greatest scientist, who he says discovered that a woman's brain is the same size as that of a squirrel, as "Dr Yarmulke".

Engagement

Baron Cohen is engaged to Australian actress Isla Fisher, and the pair plan to wed in a traditional Jewish ceremony. Fisher has converted to Judaism, and has received the approval of Baron Cohen's observant Jewish parents. The couple now reside in Los Angeles.

Career

Early career

In 1995, Channel 4 was planning a replacement for its series The Word, and put out an open call for new television presenters. Baron Cohen sent in a tape of himself in the character of Kristo, a fictional television reporter from Albania (who developed into the Kazakhstani Borat), which caught the attention of a producer. Baron Cohen bided his time by working for a Swindon-based television company, and his first feature film appearance occurred during this period.

Ali G character

Baron Cohen as Ali G

Main article: Ali G

After a brief office-work career which included stints as a quantitative analyst at investment banks JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, Baron Cohen went back into acting, appearing during 2-minute sketches as his fashion reporter Bruno on The Paramount Comedy Channel during 1998. He shot to fame when his comic character Ali G, an idiotic Junglist, started appearing on The Eleven O'Clock Show on Channel 4, which first went to air September 8 1998.

Da Ali G Show began in 2000, and won the BAFTA for best comedy series in the following year. Also in 2000, Ali G appeared in Madonna's music video "Music".

Ali G Indahouse film

Main article: Ali G Indahouse

In 2002, Ali G was the central character in the feature film Ali G Indahouse, in which he is elected to the British Parliament and foils a plot to bulldoze a community centre in his hometown, Staines. His television show was brought to the United States in 2003 (with new episodes set in America) for HBO.

Ali G interviews

Ali G's interviews with famous people (often politicians) gained notoriety partly because the subjects were not privy to the joke that Ali G, rather than being a real interviewer, was a comedic character played by Baron Cohen. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Cohen would always enter the interview area in character as Ali G, carrying equipment and appearing to be an insignificant crew-member: then, he would ask the interviewee some preliminary questions, to allow the interviewee to become accustomed to Ali's idiosyncratic style. The interviewee, however, would remain under the impression that the smartly-dressed director would be conducting the interview until short notice prior to cameras rolling: this would grant an advantage of surprise, whereby the interviewee would be less likely to opt out of the Ali interview prior to its commencement.

On at least one occasion, the interviewee was merely told that Ali G had a popular show on MTV that kids watched. The resulting willingness of Ali G's targets to answer his frequently risqué questions often created surprising conversations. Notable interviewees have included:

• astronaut Buzz Aldrin
• perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader
• writer Gore Vidal
• real estate mogul Donald Trump
• former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop
• basketball player Shaquille O'Neal
• former Secretary of State James Baker III
• Egyptian millionaire Mohamed Al Fayed
• former US Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
• political commentator Pat Buchanan
• Professor Noam Chomsky
• English football player David Beckham
• former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali (whom Baron Cohen, in his Ali G character, referred to as 'Boutros Boutros Boutros Boutros-Ghali')
• British ex-Conservative MP Neil Hamilton
• journalist Andy Rooney

This last being one of the few personalities who grew extremely frustrated and abruptly ended the interview, prompting Ali G to ask "is it 'cos I is black?" and to accuse Rooney of being "racialist".

Another interview, with former White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, grew so contentious that Fitzwater angrily ended the interview and proclaimed about Ali G "The guy's an idiot".

Bruno character

Sacha Baron Cohen as 'Bruno'

Main article: Bruno (Sacha Baron Cohen character)

Baron Cohen's second alter ego is 'Bruno' (sometimes written Brüno), a gay Austrian fashion show presenter, who often lures his subjects into unwittingly making provocative statements and engaging in embarrassing behaviour, as well as leading them to contradict themselves, often in the same interview. Bruno asks the subjects to answer 'yes or no' questions with either "Vassap" (yes), or "Ich don't think so" (no), or sometimes "Ach, ja!" (oh yes!) or "Nicht, nicht" (not, not). In at least one segment on Da Ali G Show he encouraged his guest to answer questions with either "Keep them in the ghetto" or "Train to Auschwitz". Bruno's main comedic satire pertains to the vacuity and inanity of the fashion and clubbing world, so for instance the aforesaid indifference towards potentially upsetting Holocaust references is intended to reveal a certain insularity surrounding the cultural context of the interviewee.

Plans are underway for Baron Cohen to bring Bruno to the big screen, and after an intense bidding war that included such Hollywood powerhouses as DreamWorks, Sony, and 20th Century Fox; Universal Pictures paid a reported $42.5 million for the rights to the movie. According to insiders, Baron Cohen himself is getting paid $13 million upfront, and will also receive 15% of the box office take. That means if the film (tentatively titled "Brüno") does as well as "Borat", Baron Cohen stands to make approximately $30 million.

Borat character

File:Boratmoi.jpg

Borat meets with the fictitious Kazakh Ministry of Information, which commissions him to make a documentary. This picture is from Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Main article: Borat

Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, a feature film with "Borat" at the centre, was screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and released in the United Kingdom November 2, 2006, in the United States on November 3, 2006 and Australia November 23, 2006. The film is about a journey across the United States in an ice cream van, in which the main character is obsessed with the idea of marrying Pamela Anderson. It is said to be an unscripted mockumentary, but includes interviews (with various American citizens) that poke fun at the hobgoblins of American culture, including sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and jingoism.

It debuted at the #1 spot in the US, taking in an estimated $26.4 million in just 837 theatres averaging $31,600 per theatre, the third highest per-theatre average of all time for movies opening wide (500 screens or more), behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Spider-Man. It easily outdistanced the expected #1 movie of the weekend, Disney's The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, which earned an estimated $20 million in 3,458 cinemas.

Baron Cohen won the 2007 Golden Globe in the "Best Actor - Musical or Comedy" category, his sixth such award. Although Borat was up for "Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy," the film lost to Dreamgirls. On 23 January 2007, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He shared his nomination with the movie's co-writers, Ant Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, and Todd Phillips.

Aside from the comic elements of his characters, Baron Cohen's performances are interpreted by some as reflecting uncomfortable truths about his audience. He juxtaposes his own Jewish lineage with the anti-Semitism of his character Borat. In one sketch from the TV show (and as such, not included in the film), Borat goes to a bar singing an anti-Semitic song called 'Throw the Jew Down the Well', with many in the bar singing along.

Although the character Borat is Kazakh, he frequently begins segments with Polish expressions "Jak się masz?" (How are you?), "Dzień dobry" (Good day) and "Dziekuję" (Thank you), quite popular in Kazakhstan because of noticeable Polonia living there due to deportations during WWII. His use of "Boutrous" was used on BBC's The Fast Show sketches, and Mahir "I Kiss You" Çağrı publicly claims much of the Borat character was based on him.

Other appearances

• Baron Cohen as Ali G appeared in Madonna's 2000 video "Music", with Jonas Akerlund as director.
• Baron Cohen guest-starred in the finale of the fifth season Curb Your Enthusiasm, with Dustin Hoffman as a guide to Heaven. He also provided the voice of the lemur king, King Julian, in Dreamworks' family movie Madagascar (2005), and appeared as Will Ferrell's archrival the French Formula 1 speed demon Jean Girard in the 2006 hit Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
• Baron Cohen has twice presented the MTV Europe Music Awards, first as Ali G on November 8, 2001, in Frankfurt, Germany, and then as Borat on November 3, 2005 in Lisbon, Portugal.
• He also delivered the 2004 Class Day address at Harvard University as Ali G, the day before the graduation ceremony.
• At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, Borat introduced Gnarls Barkley's performance of "Crazy," where he made various crude sexist remarks about Jessica Simpson, and Borat's appearance was cut from subsequent rebroadcasts.
• Baron Cohen is a supporter of Comic Relief, and (as Ali G) has hosted interviews with, among others football player David Beckham and wife Victoria, for the benefit of the charity.
• Baron Cohen will appear alongside Johnny Depp in the film Sweeney Todd as Signor Adolfo Pirelli.

Controversies

Baron Cohen has encountered several controversies regarding some of his comic characters.

• Two residents of Glod, the Romanian village in which the opening scenes of Borat were filmed, hired US attorney Ed Fagan to sue the makers of Borat for $30 million. They allege the intent of the film was misrepresented to them, that the poorest members of their village were made to look like "savages", and that they were underpaid, particularly when their minute salaries were compared to the millions earned by the completed movie. The lawsuit was dismissed in a New York hearing on the grounds that the allegations were too vague to stand up in court.

• In an interview with Neil Hamilton in 2000, Ali G offered Hamilton what was allegedly marijuana, which Hamilton accepted and smoked, creating some minor controversy in the British media.

• Baron Cohen has had some troubles because of racist or prejudiced comments his characters have made (see Da Ali G Show). HBO spokesman Quentin Schaffer has replied to the criticisms: 'Through his alter-egos, he delivers an obvious satire that exposes people's ignorance and prejudice in much the same way All in the Family did years ago.'

Regarding his portrayal as the anti-Semitic Borat, Baron Cohen says the segments are a "dramatic demonstration of how racism feeds on dumb conformity, as much as rabid bigotry," rather than a display of racism by Baron Cohen himself. "Borat essentially works a tool. By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice," Baron Cohen explains. Addressing the same topic in an NPR interview with Robert Siegel, Cohen says "...and I think that's quite an interesting thing with Borat, which is people really let down their guard with him because they're in a room with somebody who seems to have these outrageous opinions. They sometimes feel much more relaxed about letting their own outrageous, politically incorrect, prejudiced opinions come out." Cohen, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, says he also wishes in particular to expose the role of indifference in that genocide. "When I was in university, there was this major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw, who said, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.' I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic." Regarding the enthusiastic response to his song "In My Country There is Problem", he says, "Did it reveal that they were anti-Semitic? Perhaps. But maybe it just revealed that they were indifferent to anti-Semitism."

• The government of Kazakhstan threatened Baron Cohen with legal action after the MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony in Lisbon, and the authority in charge of the country's country-code top-level domain name removed the website that he had created for his character Borat (previously: http://www.borat.kz currently: http://www.borat.tv/) for alleged violation of the law — specifically, registering for the domain under a false name. The New York Times, (among others), has reported that Baron Cohen, (in character as Borat), replied: "I'd like to state that I have no connection with Mr Cohen [sic] and fully support my government decision to sue this Jew." He was, however, recently defended by Dariga Nazarbayeva, a politician and the daughter of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stated 'We should not be afraid of humour and we shouldn't try to control everything, I think.' The deputy foreign minister of Kazakhstan has recently invited Baron Cohen to visit the country, stating that he could learn that 'women drive cars, wine is made of grapes, and Jews are free to go to synagogues.'

• Baron Cohen encountered another problem around his Borat character. Two of the three college students who appear in Borat sued the filmmakers, alleging that they were duped into signing release forms while drunk, and that false promises were made that the footage was for a documentary that would never be screened in the USA. On 11 December 2006, a Los Angeles judge denied the pair a restraining order to remove them from the film. The lawsuit was dismissed in February 2007.

Performer vs. characters

Baron Cohen has often been confused with the identity of one of his characters. When he posed as Borat to host the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon, the central Hungarian news wire agency MTI reported that the host was 'Borat Sagdiyev'. As most Hungarian newspapers and television networks take MTI as their official source, the misinterpretation of the character spread rapidly in Hungary, with some sources (such as TV2) emphasizing that a Kazakhstani news reporter hosted the awards, while others (such as Index.hu) noticed and pointed out the error.

TV, radio, and magazine appearances

As a general rule, Baron Cohen rarely does interviews out of character. However, in 2004, he did the talk show circuit appearing as himself on The Daily Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Opie and Anthony Show, The Howard Stern Show [7], and others in order to promote the upcoming season of his show on HBO. He was also interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered[8]. He also did an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, published in November 2006, that the magazine labelled "his only interview as himself". However, he recently appeared in an interview out of character with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air on 4 January 2007.[9]

"Borat" Director Larry Charles explains that Baron Cohen generally appears in character partly to "protect the product", by focusing public interest on his characters rather than himself. His other reason, Newsweek claims, is that Baron Cohen is fiercely private: "...according to the UK press, his publicists denied not only that he attended a party for "Borat"'s recent London premiere, but also that a party even occurred."

Awards & nominations

• 1999 - Won British Comedy Award, Best Male Comedy Newcomer for: "The 11 O'Clock Show" (1998)
• 2000 - Nominated BAFTA TV Award, Best Entertainment Performance for: "The 11 O'Clock Show" (1998)
• 2000 - Nominated National Television Award, UK, Most Popular Comedy Performer for: "Da Ali G Show" (2000)
• 2000 - Won TV Quick Award, TV Personality of the Year for: "Da Ali G Show" (2000)
• 2001 - Won BAFTA TV Award, Best Comedy (Programme or Series) for: "Da Ali G Show" (2000) (shared)
• 2001 - Won BAFTA TV Award, Best Comedy Performance for: "Da Ali G Show" (2000)
• 2003 - Nominated Emmy Award, Outstanding Non-Fiction Program (Alternative) for: "Da Ali G Show" (2003) (shared)
• 2003 - Nominated Emmy Award, Outstanding Writing for Non-Fiction Programming for: "Da Ali G Show" (2003) (shared)
• 2004 - Nominated Golden Satellite Award, Best Performance by an Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical for: "Da Ali G Show" (2003)
• 2005 - Nominated Emmy Award, Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series for: "Da Ali G Show" (2003) (shared)
• 2005 - Nominated Emmy Award, Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program for: "Da Ali G Show" (2003) (shared)
• 2006 - Won Ronnie Barker Award

"Borat" film awards and nominations

• 2006 - Won Los Angeles Films Critics Association Award for Best Actor for: "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (2006)
• 2006 - Won San Francisco Films Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for: "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (2006)
• 2006 - Winner Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor for: "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (2006)
• 2006 - Won Deutscher Comedypreis (German comedy award) for Best International Comedy for: "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (2006)
• 2007 - Won Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical for Borat and Nominated for Best Picture Comedy/Musical for Borat as well.
• 2007 - Nominated for London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actor of the Year for: "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (2006)
• 2007 - Nominated for Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for: "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (2006)

Miscellaneous

• Sports Illustrated's November 6 2006 issue contains a column called "Skater vs. Instigator", which illustrates various amusing "parallels" between Sacha Baron Cohen and figure skater Sasha Cohen, ranging from their mutually held personal significance of the number 4 [10], to their mutual romantic interests in redheads.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
2008	Dinner for Schmucks	unknown	unknown (in production - scripting)
2008	Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill	Curly Oxide	unknown (in production - scripting)
2008	Madagascar 2	Julien (voice only)	computer-animated film (in production - filming)
2008	Bruno The Movie	Bruno	film (in development) http://www.BrunoMovie.tv http://AustrianGayTV.at
2007	Sweeney Todd	Signor Adolfo Pirelli	film (in production - filming)
2006	Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Event for Autism Education	Borat Sagdiyev	TV special
2006	Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan	Borat Sagdiyev	film http://Borat.tv http://www.BoratOnline.co.uk
2006	Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby	Jean Girard	film
2005	Curb Your Enthusiasm (season 5 episode 10 "The End")	Larry's Guide #2 (guest star)	TV series
2005	Madagascar	Julien (voice only)	computer-animated film
2003-2004	Da Ali G Show	Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Bruno	TV series
2003	Spyz	James Bond	short film
2002	Ali G Indahouse	Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev	film
2000	The Jolly Boys' Last Stand	Vinnie	film
2000	Da Ali G Show	Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Bruno	TV series
1998-1999	The 11 O'Clock Show	Ali G	TV series
1998	Live from the Lighthouse	Ali G	TV special
1996	Punch	unnamed	short film
1995	Jack and Jeremy's Police 4	Various	TV special

External links

• Sacha Baron Cohen at IMDb
• Template:MySpace
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• Sacha Baron Cohen biography and credits at the BFI's Screenonline
• Sacha Baron Cohen audio interview with NPR's Robert Siegel
• Sacha Baron Cohen audio interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross
• Official Borat Homesite (created after the original site, www.borat.kz, was taken down by the Association of Kazakh IT Companies due to backlash and resentment from Kazakhi government at Borat's misportrayal of their country)
• Sacha Baron Cohen in the news
• Habonim Dror Youth Movement
• The Jolly Boys Last Stand
• Yahoo biography
• ThrowawayyourTV.com Sacha Baron Cohen Video Archive
• Sacha Baron Cohen's characters video collection
• 'Borat' Earns Glorious $26.4M in Debut
• Borat Audio Soundboards

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