# Mehdi Dehbi

Mehdi Dehbi (born 5 December 1985) is a Belgian actor and theatre director, known for his roles in La Folle Histoire d'amour de Simon Eskenazy [fr] (2009, English title: He is My Girl), L'Infiltré [fr] (2011), Le Fils de l'Autre (2012, English title: The Other Son), Mary Queen of Scots (2013), and A Most Wanted Man (2014). In 2020, he played the title role in the Netflix series Messiah.

## Early life

Mehdi Dehbi was born on 5 December 1985 in the Hôpital de Bavière [fr] in Liège, to a family of Tunisian origin. From the age of ten, Dehbi attended the Académie Grétry [fr] theater and music school, which had been established in the hospital building where he had been born.
At the age of sixteen his first lead role in a feature film was in Le Soleil assassiné [fr], directed by Abdelkrim Bahloul and produced by the Dardenne brothers, for which he was nominated as Best Actor at the Joseph Plateau Awards.
After studying drama and music at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, then at the CNSAD in Paris, and finally at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, he pursued his career in film and theater.
In 2012 Mehdi directed his first play, Les Justes by Albert Camus at the Théâtre de Liège. The show toured in France and Germany in 2013 and in 2014 Mehdi Dehbi was nominated for the Découverte (Discovery) Prize at the 2014 Prix de la critique [fr] awards as a director.

## Film

| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 2004 | Le Soleil assassiné [fr] | Hamid | Abdelkrim Bahloul | Nominated – Joseph Plateau Award for Best Belgian Actor |
| 2006 | Bourreau | Le Suicidé | Frédérick Vin | Short |
| 2009 | La Folle Histoire d'amour de Simon Eskenazy | Naïm | Jean-Jacques Zilbermann | |
| 2010 | Sweet Valentine | Pierre | Emma Luchini | |
| 2011 | Looking for Simon | Jalil | Jan Krüger | |
| 2012 | The Other Son | Yacine Al Bezaaz | Lorraine Lévy | International Film Festival of Boulogne-Billancourt - Best Actor |
| 2013 | Le sac de farine | Nari | Kadija Leclere | Nominated – Magritte Award for Most Promising Actor |
| 2013 | Je ne suis pas mort | Yacine | Mehdi Ben Attia | |
| 2014 | Lili Rose | Samir | Bruno Ballouard | |
| 2014 | A Most Wanted Man | Jamal Abdullah | Anton Corbijn | |
| 2014 | Mary Queen of Scots | David Rizzio | Thomas Imbach | |
| 2015 | Another South | Khaleed | Gianluca Maria Tavarelli | |
| 2016 | London Has Fallen | Sultan Mansoor | Babak Najafi | |
| 2018 | Mescaline | Mehdi | Clarisse Hahn [fr] | Short |
| 2022 | Boy from Heaven | Zizo | Tarik Saleh | Nominated - Magritte Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 2023 | Animalia | Amine | Sofia Alaoui | |
| TBA | Prisoners of Paradise | | Mitch Jenkins | Post-Production |
| TBA | Baron Day Barracks | Muhammad | Joah Jordan | Filming |

## Television

| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 2007 | Septième Ciel Belgique [fr] | Guillaume | Luc Boland, André Chandelle, ... | TV series (10 episodes) |
| 2011 | L'Infiltré [fr] | Issam Mourad | Giacomo Battiato | TV Movie Biarritz Film Festival - Golden Fipa for Best Actor |
| 2014-15 | Tyrant | Abdul | Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Michael Lehmann, ... | TV series (11 episodes) |
| 2020 | Messiah | Al-Masih | James McTeigue & Kate Woods | TV series (10 episodes) |

## Theatre

| Year | Title | Author | Director |
| 2007 | Romeo and Juliet | William Shakespeare | John Baxter |
| 2009 | Terre Sainte | Mohamed Kacimi | Sophie Akrich |
| 2009-10 | Baïbars le mamelouk qui devint sultan | Marcel Bozonnet | Marcel Bozonnet |
| 2010 | Splendid's | Jean Genet | Cristèle Alves Meira |
| 2011 | Gare de l'Est | Sophie Akrich | Sophie Akrich |
| 2012 | Romeo and Juliet | William Shakespeare | David Bobée [fr] |

## Theatre directing

| Year | Title | Author | Notes |
| 2012-14 | Les Justes | Albert Camus | Théâtre de Liège, Théâtre des Tanneurs [fr] (Brussels), Théâtre du Jeu de Paume [fr] (Aix-en-Provence), Fast Forward Theater Festival (Braunschweig) Nominated for the Découverte Prize at the 2014 Prix de la critique awards [fr] |