Posted by | Ray Cornelius
Check out these amazing photos of Oscar nominated-actor Mahershala Ali for The Hollywood Reporter. The “Moonlight” star opens up about his humble beginnings in Oakland, CA and his turbulent relationship with his mother, who is an ordained Baptist minister and his late father, who left the family to pursue a career as a dancer on Broadway.
Ali, who turned 43-years-old this week, also discusses the moment he converted from Christianity to Islam, meeting his wife, Amatus-Sami Karim-Ali and ditching basketball at Saint Marie’s College to pursue acting.
“That was the trigger for me: when I felt that was the only thing I could do, and if I did anything else I wouldn’t be on track. It was therapeutic to get down to the seeds of other people’s dysfunction, with the goal to crack it open and shed light on it. That’s what led me to graduate school [at NYU] and to follow acting, like my father,” said Ali to THR’s Stephen Galloway.
Photo Credits: TheHollywoodReporter
