Sacha Baron Cohen Biography | Artist Actors Biography

Sacha Noam Baron Cohen(born October 13, 1971) is a British comedian and actor notable for his successful and controversial comic characters, including Ali G (a junglist from West Staines, England), Borat (a Kazakhstani reporter), and Brüno (a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion reporter). All three characters are featured in Da Ali G Show, an often unscripted program in which Sacha 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 a BAFTA award, and earned an Emmy nomination.

Baron Cohen was born in Hammersmith, London, England to an Orthodox Jewish family. He is the second of three sons of Gerald Baron Cohen and Daniella Weiser; his father owns a menswear shop in Piccadilly and is originally from Wales, while his mother is a native Israeli of Persian heritage. Cohen is from an active Zionist family.

The Baron Cohens lived a comfortable middle-class life, which afforded young Sacha the opportunity to attend Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School, a private school in Elstree. He then attended Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge where he studied history and wrote his dissertation on Jewish involvement in the American Civil Rights movement, focusing especially on the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Mississippi.

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

* Citizens of Glod, the Romanian village in which the opening scenes of Borat were filmed are also attempting to sue the makers of Borat. They feel the intent of the film was misrepresented to them, and that the poorest members of their village were made to look like “savages.”
* 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.’