Omar Elba

Omar Elba is a versatile actor who played the lead opposite Tom Hanks in 'A Hologram for the King'. He was cast by director Rebecca Thomas (of 'Stranger Things') to play Mark Green, a moralistic journalist struggling to navigate the corrupt world of his co-worker (played by Jessica Biel) in the crime thriller 'Limetown'. Subsequently, he landed a series regular role as Sameer, a character unable to fit in due to his unaddressed mental illness (Autism Spectrum Disorder) in A24's critically acclaimed Netflix series, 'Mo'. His nuanced performance of autism received numerous positive reviews, most notably from the autism community itself. Elba also starred, wrote and directed 'Tim', a Freudian short film about the Ego, Id and Superego. In preparation for the 2 main roles, he transformed his body twice by gaining 20 pounds of fat to play Tim and then losing the weight and gaining 10 pounds of muscle to play Tim's Ego. For the physical transformation between both characters to take place, the two performances (Tim and Tim's Ego) were shot one year apart, respectively. In the film, both characters, Tim (an overweight, balding codependent) and Tim's Ego (his better looking, more assertive counterpart), are seen interacting onscreen simultaneously.