Rami Malek | Before They Were Famous | Biography

Before Remy Malek appeared on 24 as well as the Steven Spielberg produced mini series The Pacific, eventually starring as the lead on Mr. Robot Before Remy Malek amassed a giant social media following with over 600,000 followers on Twitter as well as 2.7 million on Instagram at the time of this recording Before Remy was a talk show regular, even taking selfies with Ellen DeGeneres Before Remy Malek replaced Sacha Baron Cohen as Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, earning him his first Academy Award Before Remy fell right off the Oscar stage after giving his acceptance speech Once upon a time, Remy Malek was working as a pizza delivery man in Los Angeles. He was also living in a cramped two-bedroom apartment, but he would do whatever he could to make it. This included placing his headshots and resume into envelopes, and he would tape them to the bottom of each pizza box that he would deliver. This is just one of the many crazy stories actors have from their days of desperation. But for most thespians, winning an Oscar isn't even a slight possibility. Most are lucky to get a paying job. Remy Malek is definitely an exception. Landing his first role on Gilmore Girls back in 2004, the LA native moved on to film roles in Night at the Museum, Battleship, Twilight, The Master and more. His TV roles in The War at Home and 24 were notable, but it was his performance as Stafu in The Pacific which showed the world that this was an actor to look out for. Receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Evansville in 2003, Remy had been preparing for the moment when he would finally get his big break. This came when he was cast in 2015 as computer hacker Elliot Alderson on Mr. Robot. For this, he snagged a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. While his performance on the show has been acclaimed, nobody was prepared for the impact he would have when he took on the role of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. However, it's not just the actor's wins that are an interesting part of his legacy. You won't believe some of the roles he was actually in the running for, roles he was sometimes passed on because of his Middle Eastern heritage. Remy said that there were many auditions starting out where he knew he'd be rejected for reasons beyond his acting ability. As a result, he was forced to play several stereotypical roles. It may or may not have been this factor that cost him a lead part on a certain gangster HBO show. Either way, that didn't stop him from getting a fateful meeting with two of Hollywood's biggest legends. What's going on guys? It's your boy Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Remy Malek prior to his fame. Here for you of course on Before They Were Famous. We're dropping this video here on my second channel because we've been doing a little bit of A-List Hollywood-ers over here. We got a lot to get through, this is a really fantastic story. We also recently dropped one on Bradley Cooper, be sure to check that out. So now let's get into Remy Malek. Remy Syed Malek was born on May 12, 1981 in Los Angeles, California. He and his twin brother Sammy were born to father Syed, an insurance salesman, and Nelly an accountant. Both of Remy's parents hail from Cairo, Egypt. His father worked as a tour guide in the city and wished to come to the United States after doing business with American tourists. His mother at the time was not into the idea of leaving her birthplace and commenting on her journey, Remy stated, She did not want to leave. She had family and friends right next door, and it was hard to give that up for a city like L.A. That can sometimes feel estranged from neighborhood to neighborhood. She took some convincing, but the couple eventually made the move. They settled in Sherman Oaks, a district in the San Fernando Valley, where they first gave birth to Remy's older sister, Yasmin. The actor is a twin brother, and they have an interesting relationship, one that Remy has been more than happy to discuss over the years. Sammy has been a constant supporter of his brother's career, so it must be nice having a twin. One particular story from their younger years that Remy has shared on numerous talk shows is when Sammy needed to learn a Greek monologue, something Remy was studying as an aspiring actor. What was at stake? Well, Sammy needed to recite the monologue in class in order to complete his degree. He did what any responsible student would do. He got his twin brother to go in there, pose against him, and recite the monologue. Who wouldn't do it? While it seemed to be going well, his teacher had her doubts. Remy and his siblings were brought up to honor and appreciate their Egyptian heritage. His father would sometimes wake him up in the middle of the night to talk on the phone with his relatives halfway across the globe. This helped him work on his Arabic. Being the child of immigrants put Remy at odds with the kids at school. Many of his classmates would tease him and mispronounce his name. The cultural differences of the Malik family were visible to American kids. The sandwiches he brought to school were apparently quite the sight to fellow students in the cafeteria. The immigrant mentality was always present in the Malik household. Remy's parents wanted their children to be doctors and lawyers as this was their idea of success in America. Remy lived a fairly sheltered life in Sherman Oaks which gave him a very limited perspective of his future possibilities. For someone with such easy access to Hollywood, he surprisingly didn't want to be an actor right away. Reflecting on his childhood, he stated, I never thought about being an actor when I was a kid. I lived in the valley, and I don't think I ever went over the hill into Hollywood or Beverly Hills until I was in high school. I didn't even know it existed as far as I was concerned. It was the valley, Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys. That's all I knew. Remy would spend much of his time as a kid creating characters with peculiar voices. Attending Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Remy was in the same year as actress Rachel Bilson as well as one year above Kirsten Dunst. He and Kirsten performed together in musical theatre class at Notre Dame High. During a variety segment years later when the two actors interviewed one another, Remy recalled first seeing Kirsten playing the piano and he fell in love with her talent. In another interview, he went on to admit. Of course, till this day, Notre Dame High School is vocal in their pride for both actors. When the two got nominated for Golden Globes in 2016, the school even congratulated them on their Facebook page. While Remy was interested in acting, he didn't always see that as a feasible career. Following his parents wishes of choosing a career as a lawyer, he found himself on the debating team. Realizing that he had trouble forming an argument, his teacher told him that he was better at dramatic interpretation. She convinced him to perform a one-man show called Zuman and The Sign. Performing the play with family in the crowd, he felt that acting was the right choice for him. Talking about his experience on stage, Remy has stated. I still love being on stage. There's a thrill to it that never goes away. It always feels different, and the response you get from the audience is just so visceral. With film and TV, you have to wait to see what people think, and right there, that connection with an audience is like nothing else. Remy's first ever audition was for a play in high school called The Miracle Worker. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1999, moving on to the University of Evansville, Indiana, where he would study theater. After college in 2003, Remy moved back to Los Angeles, where he would give professional acting a go. Living in a small cramped apartment, he took up work as a pizza delivery guy. Remember how I said he'd deliver resumes with the pizzas? He actually ended up getting an audition out of it for an Eminem commercial, and it was one he didn't get. But still! In 2004, he landed his first TV role as Andy on Gilmore Girls, and this may have been one of his more interesting roles starting out, as he would later be typecast as one-dimensional Middle Eastern stereotypes. This included a pharaoh in Night at the Museum, and even a terrorist in the show 24. In the past, it was like, oh well, he's an acceptable terrorist, he's an accessible terrorist. But after I did that, I said to myself, you know what? No more. This is not how I want it. Remy was determined to prove to big time Hollywood casting agents that he could play more than just racial stereotypes. Being passed up for the role of Jimmy Darmody in HBO's Boardwalk Empire, he received a callback from another audition he did. Although this was no ordinary callback. The person on the other line was Tom Hanks. The actor told Remy that he would love him for the role of Snafu on the World War 2 miniseries, which was known, of course, as The Pacific. It turns out that Tom loved the actor's haunting eyes, and he wanted him to come in to test in front of him personally. Entering the audition room, he noticed another familiar face behind the camera. This person was a little bit older, you know, quite a bit older, silver haired kind of gentleman, and halfway through I go, holy s**t, that's Steven Seagal. Remy eventually landed the role, and shooting the series in Australia, the actor was no longer being typecast. This was finally a part he could sink his teeth into. Putting on the uniform of a World War 2 Marine during the Battle of the Pacific, Remy's performance as Snafu is one he considers his breakthrough role. But of course, it was only the beginning. As for the rest of the story, well hey, we're gonna have to go and find it elsewhere, because this is Before They Were Famous. My name's Michael McCrudden, we make all sorts of celebrity bios here for you on this channel, so let us know who you want us to document next in the comments down below. If you're watching this on my second channel, we need all the help we can get. If you guys want to hit subscribe, very much appreciate it, share this video with a Remy and I'll see you guys in another video.