Biography
Faysal Ahmed is a Somali actor. Born in Yemen in 1985 to a Somali family, he moved to the United States with his mother and siblings in 1999 and settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Prior to acting professionally, Ahmed worked as a youth programme coordinator at the Bedlam Theater in Minneapolis, where he contributed to plays and poetry, and participated in a local health insurance enrolment drive. He was cast as Najee in the 2013 film Captain Phillips after being selected, along with three others, from more than 700 participants at a 2011 open casting call in Minneapolis.
Ahmed has since appeared in A Stray (2016), Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) as Bashiir, the second season of Castle Rock (2019) as Hassan, and 438 Days (2019) as Abdullahi Hussein. He relocated to Los Angeles in 2014 to pursue further acting opportunities.
