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ACTOR NAME ACTOR NAME ACTOR NAME

Haaz Sleiman

Birth Date:

July 1, 1976

Birth Name:

Haaz Sleiman

Birth Place:

United Arab Emirates

Nick Name:

Unconfirmed

Film Debut:

The Ski Trip 2004

Breakthrough Film:

The Visitor 2007

Biography

Haaz Sleiman was born on July 1, 1976, in the United Arab Emirates and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, in a Muslim family. He spent his childhood in a city still marked by the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War, an environment that shaped his early sense of isolation and resilience. At the age of twenty-one he immigrated to the United States, settling first in the Detroit area of Michigan, where he lived with relatives in Dearborn and enrolled at Wayne State University. There he completed a bachelor’s degree in computer science before deciding to pursue acting full-time, moving on to New York and later Los Angeles to develop his craft in film, television, and theater.

Sleiman’s professional career began in the mid-2000s. His feature film debut came in 2004 with the comedy The Ski Trip. He soon secured guest roles on American television series, including appearances on ER, 24, NCIS, and Veronica Mars. His breakthrough arrived in 2007 when he portrayed Tarek, an undocumented Syrian musician and immigrant, in the independent drama The Visitor, directed by Tom McCarthy. The performance earned him a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male and brought widespread critical attention. That same year he appeared in smaller roles in American Dreamz and AmericanEast, establishing himself as a versatile actor capable of bringing depth and humanity to complex characters.

In the years that followed, Sleiman continued to build a diverse body of work. He played the openly gay nurse Mohammed “Mo-Mo” De La Cruz in the first season of the series Nurse Jackie and later took on the title role of Jesus in the National Geographic miniseries Killing Jesus. Additional credits include parts in The Promise, Nikita, The State, Jack Ryan, Little America, and the Marvel film Eternals, in which he portrayed Ben, the husband of the Eternal Phastos. He has also performed on stage in New York productions. Through these roles Sleiman has become known for thoughtful portrayals that often explore themes of identity, immigration, and belonging.

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