Sacha Baron Cohen Trivia | 50 facts about the actor

Sacha Baron Cohen is an English actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter, who is best known for his creation and portrayal of Borat.

Let’s find out more about the actor!

1. His full nam is Sacha Noam Baron Cohen.
2. He was born on 13th of October 1971.
3. He is an English actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter.
4. He is best known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral General Aladeen.
5. 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.
6. At the 2012 British Comedy Awards, he received the Outstanding Achievement Award and accepted the award in-character as Ali G.
7. In 2013, he received the BAFTA Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy.
8. In 2018, The Times named him among the 30 best living comedians.
9. Sacha 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).
10. 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).
11. He made a cameo as a BBC News anchor in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013).
12. In 2016, he appeared in the comedy film Grimsby and co-starred in the fantasy sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass.
13. His voice acting roles include King Julien XIII in the Madagascar film series (2005–2012) and Uncle Ugo in Luca (2021).
14. Beginning his career in television, Baron Cohen was named Best Newcomer at the 1999 British Comedy Awards for The 11 O’Clock Show.
15. 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.
16. Sacha 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.
17. 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.
18. He has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Actors Branch since 2008.
19. 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.
20. After the release of Brüno, he said he would retire that character.
21. However, the character of Borat was brought back for the 2020 sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.
22. He attended Christ’s College.
23. After graduating Christ’s College, Cambridge, Sacha Baron Cohen briefly worked as a fashion model before hosting low-paying local and regional TV shows in the early 1990s.
24. Sacha Baron Cohen once hawked French fries in a commercial for McCain’s. He played a chef for about a nanosecond of screen time.
25. Sacha Baron Cohen owes his success to a clown. More specifically he studied with the legendary Philippe Gaulier in Paris. Gaulier is known for his rigid deadpan, frizzy hair, and heartlessly brutal feedback.
26. A post-fame Sacha Baron Cohen—who credits Gaulier for his success—returned to the clowning school on its 20th anniversary to perform in workshops.
27. Sacha Baron Cohen idolizes Peter Sellers.
28. A lot of people have threatened to sue Sacha Baron Cohen, and several have.
29. After Borat, the Kazakhstan government threatened a suit (Baron Cohen responded by encouraging them in character as Borat), and the Romanian village where he shot his «Kazakhstan» segments wasn’t pleased about being lied to either.
30. He’s been sued by frat boys, a bingo hall employee, and a Palestinian grocer. The first two cases were dismissed, and the third was settled out of court.
31. Sacha Baron Cohen grew accustomed to the police showing up to his projects early on, but the FBI also got involved during the Borat shoot.
32. Part of Baron Cohen’s ability to avoid cracking during hide-under-the-carpet awkward moments is that he goes method, remaining in character regardless of whether cameras are rolling.
33. That means he’s Borat or Brüno or someone else ridiculous during production meetings, while being questioned by the Secret Service after being pulled over outside the White House, or while an angry mob of rodeo fans are threatening to kill him.
34. Almost all of his red carpet appearances are in character (which he frequently uses in the art itself), and he spent years giving remarkably few interviews without the put-on.
35. During his rise to fame, Rolling Stone boasted having “the only interview as himself.”
36. Sacha Baron Cohen lied about adapting a romance novel written by Saddam Hussein to avoid being targeted by a dictator.
37. When Baron Cohen and Larry Charles were developing The Dictator, they were worried that the main influence for his Admiral General Aladeen character, Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi, would react violently to being the butt of the joke.
38. To skew attention away from the satirical target during filming, they fed media outlets the story that the movie was based on the romance novel Zabibah and the King, written by Saddam Hussein (and published anonymously).
39. No violence occurred because of the movie, but Baron Cohen was banned from filming at the United Nations because, as he claimed officials said, “We represent a lot of dictators, and they are going to be very angry by this portrayal of them, so you can’t shoot here.”
40. Sacha Baron Cohen first met Australian actress Isla Fisher at a party in Sydney in 2001, and they became engaged in 2004.
41. Subsequent to Fisher’s conversion to Judaism the pair married on 15 March 2010 in a Jewish ceremony in Paris.
42. They have two daughters, born 2007 and 2010, and a son, born 2015.
43. They previously divided their time between Marylebone in London and Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles, before moving to Sydney.
44. He tries to keep kosher and attends synagogue about twice a year.
45. He first acted in theatrical productions with the Labour Zionist youth movement Habonim Dror.
46. He spent a year in Israel as a kibbutz volunteer at Rosh HaNikra and Beit HaEmek as part of the Shnat Habonim Dror, as well as taking part in the programme Machon L’Madrichei Chutz La’Aretz for Jewish youth movement leaders.
47. His older brother is composer Erran Baron Cohen.
48. Erran has composed music for the majority of Sacha’s films, including Borat and The Dictator (2012).
49. He speaks fluent Hebrew.
50. In an interview with NPR, he explained why he often speaks Hebrew in his films. “I do like the irony of Borat, a deeply anti-Semitic character, speaking Hebrew, and this guy [in The Dictator,] who you know, wants to annihilate Israel, is also speaking Hebrew,” he said.