Sacha Noam Baron Cohen (English: /ˈsɑːʃə nəʊ ˈbærən ˈkəʊən/; Hebrew: סָשָׁה נֹעַם בָּרוֹן כֹּהֵן; born 13 October 1971) is a British actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral General Aladeen. He adopts a variety of accents and guises for his characters and interacts with unsuspecting subjects who do not realise they have been set up. At the 2012 British Comedy Awards, he received the Outstanding Achievement Award and accepted the award in-character as Ali G. In 2013, he received the BAFTA Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy. In 2018, The Times named him among the 30 best living comedians.
Baron Cohen has produced and/or performed in comedic films such as Ali G Indahouse (2002), Borat (2006) and its sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Brüno (2009), and The Dictator (2012). He has also appeared in dramatic films including Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011), Tom Hooper's Les Misérables (2012), and Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020). In 2016, he starred in Grimsby and co-starred in Alice Through the Looking Glass. His voice acting roles include King Julien XIII in the Madagascar film series (2005–2012) and Uncle Ugo in Luca (2021).
Beginning his career in television, Baron Cohen was named Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards for The 11 O'Clock Show. He created and starred in Da Ali G Show (2000–2004), receiving two BAFTA Awards. His next television project, Who Is America? (2018) for Showtime, saw him nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. In 2019, he portrayed Eli Cohen in the limited series The Spy for OCS and Netflix, for which he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film.
Baron Cohen has two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, three Golden Globe Award nominations, resulting in two wins for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his work in the feature film Borat and its sequel. In 2021, he received Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for his performance as Abbot "Abbie" Hoffman in The Trial of the Chicago 7. He has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Actors Branch since 2008.
Ali G
Baron Cohen appeared during two-minute sketches as his fashion reporter Brüno on the Paramount Comedy Channel during 1998. He shot to fame with his comic character Ali G, a fictional stereotype of a British suburban male "chav" who imitates urban black British hip hop culture and British Jamaican culture, as well as speaking in rude boy-style English with borrowed expressions from Jamaican Patois. Hailing from Staines (a suburban town in Surrey, to the west of London), Ali G started appearing on the British television show The 11 O'Clock Show on Channel 4, which first aired on 8 September 1998. A year after the première of the show, GQ named Baron Cohen comedian of the year. He won Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards, and at the British Academy Television Awards he was nominated for Best British Entertainment Performance.
Borat Sagdiyev
The Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev was first developed for short skits on F2F on Granada Television in the UK that Baron Cohen presented in 1996–1997, with the character at this time being known as Alexi Krickler. The character remained dormant while Baron Cohen concentrated on his Ali G persona, but with the subsequent success of Ali G, Baron Cohen revisited his Borat character. The character was featured in segments of Da Ali G Show. Borat's sense of humour derives from his mocking of society through outrageous sociocultural viewpoints, his deadpan violation of social taboos and use of vulgar language and behaviour.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, a feature film with Borat Sagdiyev at the centre, was screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and released in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2006, in the United States on 3 November 2006 and Australia 23 November 2006. The film follows Sagdiyev as he and his colleague Azamat Bagatov travel the US to produce a documentary about life in the country, as all the while Sagdiyev attempts to enter into marriage with celebrity Pamela Anderson. The film is a mockumentary which includes interviews with various Americans that poke fun at American culture, as well as sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and jingoism. It debuted at the No. 1 spot in the US, taking in an estimated $26.4 million in just 837 theatres averaging $31,600 per theatre.
Baron Cohen won the 2007 Golden Globe for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, 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 film'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 heritage with the anti-Semitism of his character Borat.
In 2007, Baron Cohen published a travel guide as Borat, with dual titles: Borat: Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Borat: Touristic Guidings To Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. On 21 December 2007, Baron Cohen announced he was retiring the character of Borat. The character was brought back on a 2018 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live and appears in the 2020 sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, for which he won another Golden Globe Award. After the release of Borat, Baron Cohen said he would retire Borat and Ali G because the public had become too familiar with the characters. After the release of Brüno, he said he would retire that character. However, the character of Borat was brought back for the 2020 sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm as well as the 2022 Kennedy Center Honors where he did a standup routine as Borat for the induction of U2.
Brüno Gehard
Another alter ego Sacha Baron Cohen performed as is "Brüno", a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion show presenter who often lures his unwitting subjects into making provocative statements and engaging in embarrassing behaviour, as well as leading them to contradict themselves, often in the same interview. Brüno's main comedic satire pertains to the vacuity and inanity of the fashion and clubbing world. Brüno asks the subjects to answer "yes or no" questions with either "Vassup" (What's up) or "Ich don't think so" (I don't think so); these are occasionally substituted with "Ach, ja!" (Ah yes!) or "Nicht, nicht" ("Nicht" means "no" or "not" in German). In 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".
In May 2009, at the MTV Movie Awards, Baron Cohen appeared as Brüno wearing a white angel costume, a white jockstrap, white go-go boots, and white wings; and did an aerial stunt where he dropped from a height (using wires) onto Eminem. Baron Cohen landed with his face on Eminem's crotch and with his crotch in Eminem's face, prompting Eminem to exit the venue with fellow rappers D12. Eminem later admitted to staging the stunt with Baron Cohen.
After an intense bidding war that included such Hollywood powerhouses as DreamWorks, Sony, and 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures won and paid a reported $42.5 million for the film rights to a collection of interviews Baron Cohen performed as the character Brüno. To create these interviews a number of shill companies and websites were created to draw potential interviewees by creating an illusion of legitimacy. The film was released in July 2009.
Admiral General Aladeen
Baron Cohen's 2012 film, The Dictator, was described by its press as "the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed". Baron Cohen played Admiral General Aladeen, a dictator from a fictional country called the Republic of Wadiya. Borat and Brüno film director Larry Charles directed the film. The main target of the film's satire was Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was still alive when the film was written. The producers of the film were concerned it would anger Gaddafi, possibly even resulting in a terrorist attack, so they released deliberate misinformation saying that the film was loosely based on a romance novel written by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
On 26 February 2012, Baron Cohen was allegedly banned from attending the 84th Academy Awards in his role as Admiral General Aladeen but the rumour was denied by the Academy, saying "we haven't banned him, he is lying" but made it clear that "Cohen is not welcome to use the red carpet as a platform for a promotional stunt". Baron Cohen eventually appeared at the awards' red carpet with a pair of uniformed female bodyguards, holding an urn which he claimed was filled with the ashes of Kim Jong-il. The "ashes", which Baron Cohen admitted to Howard Stern on the Tuesday, 8 May 2012 episode of The Howard Stern Show was flour, were "accidentally" spilt onto Ryan Seacrest.
Sacha Baron Cohen: Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy - 2021 Golden Globes
Sacha Baron Cohen Wins Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy - Golden Globes 2007
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