Sacha Baron Cohen
Baron Cohen in 2006, photo by PR photos
Birth Name: Sacha Noam Baron Cohen
Place of Birth: Hammersmith, London, England, U.K.
Date of Birth: 13 October, 1971
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Sacha Baron Cohen is a British comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is known for his creations Borat, Bruno, and Ali G. He is fluent in Hebrew and sometimes spoke it in his Borat film.
Sacha is the son of Daniella and Gerald Baron Cohen, who was an editor and clothing store owner. His father, of Eastern European Jewish descent, was born in London, England, and raised in Wales. Sacha’s mother was raised in Israel; her parents were German Jews, and she also has distant Czech Jewish ancestry. Sacha’s father’s family, originally named Cohen, added Baron to their surname. Sacha is married to actress Isla Fisher, with whom he has three children. Isla is a convert to Judaism.
Sacha has sometimes been described as being of Iranian Jewish or Persian Jewish ancestry. This is not accurate.
Sacha is a brother of composer and trumpet player Erran Baron Cohen, and a cousin of playwright and theatre director Dan Baron Cohen, clinical psychologist and autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen, and filmmaker Ash Baron-Cohen.
Sacha’s paternal grandfather was Moishe/Morris Cohen (the son of Chaim/Hyman Cohen and Amelia Angell). Morris was born in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales, to Eastern European Jewish parents. Chaim was born in Belarus.
Sacha’s paternal grandmother was named Fagel Miriam Nichelby/Nicholsby/Nickolsby/Nichelsky (the daughter of Jack Naselski/Nickolsby and Chana Smiga). Fagel was an English Jew. Jack was born in Dobrzyń nad Wisłą, lipnowski, kujawsko-pomorskie, Poland.
Sacha’s maternal grandfather was named Hans Weiser (the son of Zeev Weiser and Henia). Hans was a German Jew. Zeev was the son of Moses Kliger and Freide Weiser.
Sacha’s maternal grandmother was Leisel/Liesel/Liselle Levi (the daughter of Albert Levi and Betty/Betti Eisemann). Leisel was a German Jew, and a ballerina. She was born in Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Hesse. Albert was the son of Heli Levi, who was born in Ronshausen, Kassel, Hesse, and of Rosalie/Reizchen Levi, who was born in Nentershausen, Kassel. Betti was the daughter of Michael Eisemann, who was born in Mosbach, Baden-Württemberg, and of Nanette/Nannette Altmann/Altman.
Sources: Articles about Sacha’s films – http://www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.webgeordie.co.uk
Genealogy of Sacha Baron Cohen – http://www.geni.com
Expected Egyptian or Iranian…
Correction- I read somewhere that I think maybe his grandfather on his dads side was welsh.
very nice,
I read that his mother is a Mizrahi Jew as well.
What gave you the inspiration for the new weird, stalking name?
You, my dear Roger Scientist.
I’ve actually heard the same.
I was surprised reading that he is full Ashkenazim.
I don’t see Mizrahim inside him, but I do see Sephardim which are somewhat similar to Mizrahim mainly in terms of looks possibly due to assimilation in Mizrahi Jews as the Sephardic Jews were forced into the Middle East noting the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.
I did go through genealogical research and found that he is also 1/32 Sephardi Jewish (from the Netherlands and Portugal). Some of Sacha Baron Cohen’s maternal ancestors have also lived in the Netherlands, as all of them are German Jews.
Sacha could literally be anything in his role, and even as a Tatar, Kazakh, or any other Eastern European/Slavic fictional characters (Borat, of course!). However, in response to your comment, that doesn’t mean that he has the Tatar heritage. Like, I haven’t even found his Tatar roots yet!
Whatever. Anyways, you do get the point.
Phenotypically? No way. Sacha doesn’t look anything like a Kazakh (I’ve met many back in college; they have a distinctly central asian, approaching east asian, look). Nor a general “Eastern-European/Slav look”, maybe unless those slavs/eastern europeans are specifically from southeastern europe. I grew up among Northwestern Russian, Poles, Ukrainians… people have a weird misconception about the phenotype of those populations. They don’t look that different from the people north and west of them. And Tatars are phenotypical probably somewhere between those groups and Kazakhs, to put it crudely, so also nothing like Sasha.
He is NOT , that was some clown on Wikipedia claiming that . Both of his parents are Ashkenazim , all of his grandparents were born in Europe to Ashkenazi parents.
One of his parents is an Iranian Jew which is Mizrahi Jew. His surname is definitely Ashenazi Jew.
I read that his mother is Iranian (Mizrahi) Jew. His father must be Ashkenazi Jew.
His mother is the daughter of Hans Weiser (the son of Zeev Weiser and Henia) and Leisel Levi (the daughter of Albert Levi and Betty Eisemann).
In short, Baron Cohen’s maternal grandparents were German Jews, and definitely not of Persian Jewish descent. That was a weird internet rumor.
I remember reading that he also Lithuanian Jew.
There is not as much as Mizrahi Jewish as now, but we can still put it there by writing ‘some Mizrahi Jewish’ inside the passage, rather than saying, “mother – Iranian Jew” (because that’s not true)
He is 0 % Mizrahi , he is 100 % Ashkenazi. Most Ashkenazim look like this or darker, my Jewish side for instance is Ashkenazi only and they range from dark brown to olive shade. Ashkenazi Jews who are dark arent rare such as Jeff Goldblum, Idan Raichel, Amir Arison, Donna Feldman, Nikki Yanofsky, Mel Blanc and his son, Harry Enten, Rahm Emanuel, Ben Bernanke, Nev Schulman, Neal Shusterman, Mark Margolis, Larry Thomas, Larry Harlow, Andrea Gabriel, Miri Ben Ari, Svika Pick and his daughter, Daniella Rich, Grant Heslov, David Baddiel, Sam Morrill, Dave Attell, Gilbert Gottfried, Aaron Swartz, Jeremy Stoppelman and many more
That was weird fake rumors. He is fully Ashkenazi