Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Mohammed Abderrahman Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi (photo ©gdcgraphics), this is his full birth name, was born on November 21, 1965, in Sudan. His mother is the sister of actor Malcolm McDowell, and his father is the brother of Sudanese politician Sadiq al-Mahdi.
Alexander Siddig grew up in England, where he attended St. Lawrence College, Ramsgate, Kent, and then studied acting and theatre at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). His acting career began with a theatrical season in Manchester, and then he worked in London as a director in a small theatre.
For some years, he used Siddig El Fadil as a stage name, becoming known in television with the TV movie “A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia” in 1992, the sequel to “Lawrence of Arabia”, and the mini-series “The Big Battalions” of the same year.
The TV movie brought Siddig El Fadil / Alexander Siddig to the attention of producer Rick Berman when he was creating the TV show “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine“. Initially, he auditioned for the role of Commander Benjamin Sisko but at the time was too young and Berman decided to offer him the role of Dr. Julian Bashir. At the beginning of the series, in 1993, his character is naive and enthusiastic to work in a place at the frontier, then evolves considerably over the seven seasons, as happens to other significant characters. He also voiced the character in the “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Fallen” video game.
In 1995, he adopted the stage name of Alexander Siddig because no one could pronounce El Fadil correctly. In 1997, he married his colleague Nana Visitor, with whom he already had a child in 1996, Django El Tahir El Siddig. The two of them divorced in 2001.
After the end of the TV show “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, Alexander Siddig appeared in various television productions, but also started having roles in cinema productions. He’s been in espionage shows such as “Spooks” and “24”, played Hannibal in the historical TV movie “Hannibal – Rome’s Worst Nightmare”, was a guest star in the fantasy shows “Merlin”, “Atlantis” and “Da Vinci’s Demons”, in the science fiction show “Primeval” and lent his voice to Isaac Newton in the new version of the documentary series “Cosmos”.
At the cinema, he had roles in several movies, including “Kingdom of Heaven” in 2005, “Syriana” in 2005, “The Last Legion” in 2007, “Doomsday” in 2008, in which he worked with his uncle Malcolm McDowell, “Cairo Time” in 2009, “4.3.2.1” in 2010, “Clash of the Titans” in 2010 and “The Fifth Estate” in 2013.
Recently, Alexander Siddig worked in the mini-series “Tut” but especially in “Game of Thrones” in which he’s playing Prince Doran Martell. In this case, the duration of his participation might depend on how long his character will survive.
