International Trade

University of Lille

Applied Foreign Languages

International Trade

MAHERSHALA ALI

LEFEVRE Jules

2025

Instructor: Céline Langlard-Miller

1. Introduction

For this essay, I have decided to choose Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore, better known as Mahershala Ali. He is a 51-year-old American actor born on February 16, 1974 in Oakland, California. Notable for his numerous performances over the years such as Dr. Donald Shirley in Green Book, Juan in the 2017 Oscar-winning triumph Moonlight, or even Remy Danton in the world-famous tv shows, House of Cards. This assignment will examine beyond Ali’s professional success, using his career as a meaning to explore the evolution of current’s American culture. It has for objectives to analyze his contributions to the American society and culture and how he publicly navigates his identity as both black American and converted Muslim in the Hollywood business often charged with stereotypes.

To do this, we will discuss about his journey, beginning with his childhood and youth to understand the pillars of Ali’s life and the artist he has become. Then, we will deep dive into his public life, examining how he uses his notoriety to support for better representation of the African-American and Muslim communities. Afterwards, we will take a look at the challenges he has faced as converted Muslim and specifically in a country post 9/11 context particularly rough for the Muslim worshipers. Finally, we will summarize our points and express an opinion on Muslims’ situation in the United States of America.

1. Bibliographical overview

As previously mentioned, Mahershala Ali is a 51-year-old man well known for his acting career. He was born in Oakland, California on February16, 1974 but grew up near Oakland, in Hayward, 5 miles from it. Born to a Baptist mother, she herself was raised by a mother who was an ordained Baptist minister, and a father who was an agnostic who left the family cocoon when Mahershala was only 3 years old to pursue his artistic career as a professional dancer. He appeared on Broadway and died in 1994, when Ali was 20 years old. However, this did not prevent the two from remaining very close. After his parents separated, Ali’s mother found someone new when Ali was about 9 or 10 years old. The relation with his stepfather was conflictual. In fact, his stepdad was obviously taller and stronger than him but it didn’t stop Ali to confront him most of the time. Relations were still quite good overall. The major concern was mainly economic. Indeed, Ali’s stepfather and mother struggled to pay the bills. “Like so many families, we were dealing with limited means. We weren’t poor at all, but we had some challenging times financially… When my stepdad got laid off, we were really trying to find our footing for a couple of years.” Ali told The Hollywood Reporter.

Since his childhood, Ali has always seemed to have natural aptitude for athletics and sports in general. He started riding a BMX bike when he was young but he really found himself by playing basketball. Later on, thanks to his natural talent, he attended Saint Mary’s College of California on a basketball scholarship. Despite his achievements, he quickly realized that it was not for him, mostly due to the demands of playing on the team. Ali didn’t find any satisfaction in beating someone. “That is not in my spirit.” he said to The Hollywood Reporter.

At the end of his teenage years, having a different view of the world, he started to witness a major issue often related to poverty, drugs and crimes. These things were not merely distant testimonies on his part. He even saw his cousins being arrested and sent to prison for armed robbery and drug trafficking. One of his mother’s friends was a drug dealer, but he realized that she was one of them when growing up. Because of the living conditions, drugs and trafficking were often a path taken by people to support themselves without openly advertising it.  Many of his friends were involved in drug trafficking, some of them were even being killed because of it. Luckily for him, thanks to his parents’ strict education, he was never involved in that.

Despite these social problems and the end of his college basketball career, Mahershala found a passion for poetry and theater. At first, he started to write poetry and competing in poetry slams. Furthermore, in 1992, during his basketball scholarship, he also met a professor of the Theatre Department called Rebecca Engle. She was trying to find a new face, capable of being tall and extroverted enough to stand with confidence on a stage. It was thanks to this that, during a forum on activities at his college, Mahershala was invited by Ms. Engle to come and try out for the role of Othello in the play Spunk, written by George C. Wolfe. Then during his senior year, he appeared in this production. After graduating with a degree in mass communication, Ali decided to spend his 1996 summer working as an apprentice for the California Shakespeare Festival, supporting his desire to work in the performing arts industry. The year after, he applied for the New York University’s graduate acting program and got selected with only 17 other persons which was, at that time, the best graduate acting program in the United States. Before completing his university program, Mahershala played 2 roles. His first one was in 2001, playing the character of Dr. Trey Sanders in the tv show Crossing Jordan. Then his first main role in cinema for the independent film Making Revolution in 2003. These roles opened up other opportunities for him, such as the role of Tizzy in the 10 times Oscar-nominated film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, released in 2008, and the world-famous tv shows House of Cards in 2013. 3 years later, in 2016, became the year of recognition for Mahershala Ali. Indeed, the role of Juan in the Oscar-winning film Moonlight allowed him to reveal himself to the world. As a result, the following year, he won the Academy Award in the Best Supporting Actor category. This award made him the first Muslim actor to receive an Oscar. During his winning speech, he even spoke out about Donald Trump’s immigration ban, which came into effect at the beginning of 2017. To conclude this section, he played the most important role of his career as Dr. Donald Shirley in the superb Green Book released in 2018, which talks about the racial segregation that was raging in the United States in the 1960s. His performance in this film allows him to win a second Oscar for the Best Supporting Actor, making him the first African American to win two Oscars and the second black person to win an Oscar 2 years in a row since Denzel Washington.

...