Who is Oscar winner Mahershala Ali's wife Amatus Sami-Karim?
Mahershala Ali is one of the world's most respected actors, winning various awards including an Academy Award for Moonlight and now Green Book. On Sunday night, the 45-year-old arrived at the Oscars with his stunning wife Amatus Sami-Karim, having received his second nomination for his role as Dr. Don Shirley in comedy-drama Green Book. The couple have been married to since 2013. Here's everything you need to know about the acclaimed star's real-life leading lady.
Who is Amatus Sami-Karim?
She is an artist in her own right. According to her website, Amatus is a" performative conceptual artist working in the mediums of Music, Film and Theatre primarily dealing with themes related to identity, history and popular culture." She spent the early years of her life in the South Side of Chicago. Following her parents' divorce, Amatus moved to Philadelphia with her mother, who is a social-worker. She is also a graduate of Tisch School of the Arts and did one year at RADA in acting.
When did they marry?
Mahershala Ali and Amatus Sami-Karim at the 2019 Oscars
The pair are believed to have married in 2013. A year later, Ali opened up about his marriage in an candid interview with ELLE magazine. "She and I have known each other for a really long time [about] 17 years," he shared, "So, at this point, she's seen a big shift in things, but at the same time, she'll ground me real quick if I start feeling myself a little too much. She's very real, like, seriously."
READ: Mahershala Ali becomes a dad and wins an Oscar all in the same week
Do the couple have children?
In 2017, the lovebirds welcomed their first child, a baby girl named Bari Najma Ali. Amatus gave birth just days before the Oscars in which Mahershala won his first Academy Award. "Lastly, I want to thank my wife, who was in her third trimester during the awards season," Mahershala told the audience at the time. "We just had a daughter four days ago."
Before the show, the blushing dad - who is the first Muslim to win an Oscar - told E!'s Ryan Seacrest how he felt about his nomination and new arrival. "I'm a special kind of tired right now," he shared. "It's amazing though. I'm very grateful… [she was born on the] 22nd and now we are here. She was running late and was supposed to be here the 13th so we started getting concerned but she is here and healthy." After the arrival, the actor took to his Instagram to announce the special arrival of his little girl. "Bari (Bar-ee) Najma Ali 2/22/17 #pisces," he wrote.
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In January 2019, weeks before the Oscars, Ali told The Guardian that having the baby and the Oscar "was like a jigsaw puzzle which my wife and I had to try to put together. And as soon as we felt like we'd figured it out, it changed. It took a lot of listening to each other. Reacting. Every now and then we had to hit a tuning fork, to make sure we were in sync."
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