--- name: "Amir Arison" canonical: "https://film.one/person/amir-arison" fi1m_id: "amir-arison" imdb_id: "nm1682276" tmdb_id: 164431 wikidata_id: "Q16150323" roles: ["Actor"] born: "24 March 1978" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 68 average_as: "actor" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-09-23T13:53:39.735948+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Amir Arison ## Identity Amir Arison - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/amir-arison - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** amir-arison - **IMDb ID:** nm1682276 - **TMDB ID:** 164431 - **Wikidata ID:** Q16150323 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Arison, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16150323, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1682276/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/164431 Actor. Born 24 March 1978 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 24 March 1978, St. Louis, Missouri, USA - **Active:** 2013–present - **Average Fi1m score:** 68, as actor, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 63 (1), 2020s 70 (3) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 68 to 71 across 4 titles - **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 4 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 2 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 4, Crime 2, Mystery 2 - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Arison, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16150323, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1682276/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/164431 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*Dope Thief*](https://film.one/tv/dope-thief.md) (74) - **Netflix:** [*The Blacklist*](https://film.one/tv/the-blacklist.md) (63) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Amir Arison > Amir Arison plays the one man in the building with nothing to hide, and makes decency interesting, which is harder than it looks. Ten years on *The Blacklist* proved it; whether he can run the building rather than warm it is still open. Watch Aram Mojtabai in almost any hour of *The Blacklist* and he is doing the same thing: standing at a bank of screens while people who lie for a living talk over his head, and telling the truth. Amir Arison played the analyst from 2013 to 2023, and our review called him the warmest thing in the building, no small thing with James Spader's Reddington in it. It is the part he does better than most: the competent man who is a little nervous, admits it, and turns out to be right. He came to it from the stage and from years of small television parts, *The Visitor* in 2007, a recurring role on *Homeland* in 2011, and Aram was meant to be a one-off guest appearance. He improvised through a fluffed line at the audition, the writers laughed, and the character was recurring in the first season and a regular from the second, for 193 episodes. Then he did something actors in that position rarely do. He left the show as a regular after its ninth season to make his Broadway debut as the lead in *The Kite Runner* (2022), a part that asks one man to narrate, to play himself at different ages and to be difficult to like. We did not see it, but it is not the choice of a man content to be the nice one at the desk. What Arison has, and what that audition story shows, is a natural rhythm with dialogue: he talks the way people talk when they are thinking, with the hesitations left in, and next to actors delivering exposition it sounds like fresh air. We tired of *The Blacklist*'s central mystery long before the show did, and kept coming back partly because Aram was the one person on that task force we would have wanted at the next desk. The warmth is the trade, and ten years of it is a long time to be reliably kind. *Dope Thief* (2025) is his first large television part since, and it is a step up on purpose: Mark Nader, a DEA supervisor, the boss rather than the analyst. He has said "it was fun to sort of take the material and graduate to being the boss." Our review liked the series for Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura and found the plotting tangled enough to make eight episodes feel generous; it did not single Arison out. It is a supporting part in a story about two other men, and he does what supervisors do, which is stand at the edge of it. The question for the next few years is whether anyone will write him a part in which he is the most dangerous person present rather than the kindest. We would like to see him try, and we would like to see whether the warmth survives it. ## Biography Amir Arison is an American actor. He was born on 24 March 1978 in St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated from Columbia University with a BA in English. Arison is best known for playing Aram Mojtabai in the NBC series *The Blacklist* from 2013 to 2023. His other television credits include roles in *The Mentalist* (2008), *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* (1999), *Fringe* (2008), *Homeland* (2011), *NCIS* (2003) and *Billions* (2016). On stage, he received the 2023 Theatre World Award for his Broadway debut in *The Kite Runner*. He has also directed and produced short films, including *Fortress* (2016). In 2025 he appeared as Mark Nader in the series *Dope Thief*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) - *Dope Thief* (2025), Fi1m 74, as Mark Nader — [page](https://film.one/tv/dope-thief.md) - *The Beast in Me* (2025), Fi1m 67, as Frank Breton — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-beast-in-me.md) - *The Dropout* (2022), Fi1m 70, as Avie Tevanian — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-dropout.md) - *The Blacklist* (2013), Fi1m 63, as Aram Mojtabai — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-blacklist.md) ## Complete filmography (32) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Power Trip* (2026), Actor - *The Beast in Me* (2025), series, as Frank Breton — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-beast-in-me.md) - *Dope Thief* (2025), series, as Mark Nader — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/dope-thief.md) - *The Dropout* (2022), series, as Avie Tevanian — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-dropout.md) - *20 Weeks* (2018), as Ronan - *Bull* (2016), series, as ADA Roy Wilson - *Before the Sun Explodes* (2016), as Chip - *Billions* (2016), series, as Farhad - *Jane Wants a Boyfriend* (2015), as Rob - *A Merry Friggin' Christmas* (2014), as Farhad - *Quantum Love* (2014), as Almos, réceptionniste hôtel Londres - *The Blacklist* (2013), series, as Aram Mojtabai — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-blacklist.md) - *Big Words* (2013), as Eddie - *Vamps* (2012), as Derek - *H+: The Digital Series* (2012), series, as Y. Gurveer - *Blue* (2012), series, as Leonard - *Homeland* (2011), series, as Farid Bin Abbud — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/homeland.md) - *Pair of Kings* (2010), series, as King Kunu - *I Hate Valentine's Day* (2009), as Bob - *The Mentalist* (2008), series, as Ryan Kasmir — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-mentalist.md) - *Fringe* (2008), series, as Dr. Bruce Miller — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/fringe.md) - *The Visitor* (2008), as Mr. Shah - *Gossip Girl* (2007), series, as Officer Weiner - *Day Zero* (2007), as Lawyer - *Medium* (2005), series, as Harold Clark - *NCIS* (2003), series, as Sayif Ibn Alwaan — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/tv/ncis.md) - *Hope & Faith* (2003), series, as Phil Hobart - *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* (2001), series, as Lieutenant Sanjay, Tarek 'Rick' Agiza - *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* (1999), series, as Dr. Ghupta, Dr. Manning - *Law & Order* (1990), series, as Adil Salim — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/law-and-order.md) - *Handle with Care*, Actor - *The Light*, as Our man · Executive Producer --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/amir-arison