Omid Abtahi

Omid Abtahi
Abtahi speaking at the 2016 Wondercon in Los Angeles, California
Born	(1979-07-12) July 12, 1979 Tehran, Iran
Alma mater	California State University Fullerton (BA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2005-present

Omid Abtahi (Persian: امید ابطحی; born July 12, 1979) is an Iranian-born American actor. He is best known for his roles as Salim in Starz Original American Gods, Penn Pershing in The Mandalorian on Disney+, Saleem Ulman in NCIS on Paramount+, and Homes in the fourth installment of The Hunger Games film series, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. He is also known for his performances as Justin Yates in Ghost Whisperer on CBS and Detective Jerry Molbeck in the American TV adaptation of Those Who Kill on A&E.

Early life and education

Abtahi was born in Tehran, Iran. At the age of 5 he moved to Paris with his family and later they moved to the United States, finally moving to Irvine, Orange County, California when he was 10.

Abtahi graduated from University High School in Irvine in 1997 and attended California State University, Fullerton. He began studying advertising, then picked up a second major in theater and graduated in 2002.

Career

Before acting on television, Abtahi performed on stage in many theatrical productions including Fraulein Else at the Berkeley Repertory, McCarter Theatre and Longwarf Theatre; Adoration of the Old Woman at the Sundance Theatre Lab and Your Everyday Typical Romantic Comedy at the Kennedy Centre. He has also guest starred on the television series JAG, Judging Amy and 24. He played Justin Yates in Ghost Whisperer.

After arriving in Los Angeles, Abtahi was a series regular on FX's Over There and Showtime's Sleeper Cell.

Abtahi made his New York stage debut in Urge for Going by Mona Mansour. He is also the voice of Farid in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and of Sergeant John Lugo in Spec Ops: The Line. He also voices Victor "Gator" Diallo in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2006	Running with Scissors	Restaurant Manager
2008	The Mysteries of Pittsburgh	Mohammed
	Ocean of Pearls	Amrit Singh
	The Last Lullaby	Van
	Space Chimps	Dr. Jagu (voice)
2009	Brothers	Yusuf
2010	Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back	Dr. Jagu / Reporter #2 (voice)	Direct-to-video
2012	Argo	Reza
2014	Boys of Abu Ghraib	Ghazi Hammoud
2015	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2	Homes
2016	Window Horses	Ramin (voice)
2021	Justice Society: World War II	Hawkman (voice)	Direct-to-video

Television

Key

†	Denotes television programs that have not yet aired.

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2005	JAG	Wahid	Episode: "Heart of Darkness"
	Judging Amy	Reza Ajami	Episode: "The New Normal"
	Over There	Pfc. Tariq Nassiri	12 episodes
2005–2009	24	Safa / Jibraan Al-Zarian	4 episodes
2006	Sleeper Cell	Salim	7 episodes
2007	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Chandru 'Dru' Kambhatla	Episode: "The Good, the Bad and the Dominatrix"
	The Unit	The Boss	Episode: "Play 16"
2007–2008	Ghost Whisperer	Justin Yates	3 episodes
2008	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles	Sumner	Episode: "Gnothi Seauton"
	Eli Stone	Amir Khan	Episode: "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
	My Own Worst Enemy	Tony Nazari	9 episodes
2009	Can Openers	Ali	TV movie
	Bones	Hal Shirazi	Episode: "The Bones That Foam"
	NCIS	Saleem Ulman	2 episodes
2009–2010	FlashForward	Ed Fiore	2 episodes
	Three Rivers	Dr. Yousef Khouri	2 episodes
2010	Pleading Guilty	Jonathan Ziven	TV movie
	The Event	William	2 episodes
	Nikita	Amir Komera	Episode: "Resistance"
	The Mentalist	Markham Shankar	Episode: "Red Hot"
	Grey's Anatomy	Aasif	Episode: "Something's Gotta Give"
2010–2013	Star Wars: The Clone Wars	Cadet Amis (voice)	2 episodes
2011	Fringe	Simon Phillips	Episode: "Concentrate and Ask Again"
	Homeland	Raqim Faisel	3 episodes
	Hide	Neil	TV movie
2012	The Good Wife	Samir	Episode: "Live From Damascus"
	Family Guy	Prince Faisal (voice)	Episode: "Leggo My Meg-O"
	Covert Affairs	Sayid al-Muqri	Episode: "Hello Stranger"
2012–2013	Last Resort	Nigel	5 episodes
2013	Family Guy	Mahmoud (voice)	Episode: "Turban Cowboy"
	Castle	Waqas Rasheed	Episode: "Dreamworld"
	NCIS: Los Angeles	Ari Sayed	2 episodes
	Revolution	Captain Riley	2 episodes
2014	Legends	Bashir Al-Kanazer	2 episodes
	Those Who Kill	Detective Jerry Molbeck	10 episodes
2015	Better Call Saul	Detective Abbasi	3 episodes
2016	Damien	Amani Golker	10 episodes
2017	Shameless	Sameer	Episode: "Frank's Northern Southern Express"
	Hawaii Five-0	Naser Salaam	Episode: "He ke'u na ka 'alae a Hina"
2017–2021	American Gods	Salim	21 episodes
2018	The Crossing	Jake	2 episodes
	We Bare Bears	Kale (voice)	Episode: "The Limo"
2019	Love, Death & Robots	Wes (voice)	Episode: "Sonnie's Edge"
	DuckTales	Faris D'jinn (voice)	2 episodes
2019–2023	The Mandalorian	Penn Pershing	5 episodes
2021–2022	Fear the Walking Dead	Howard	8 episodes
2021	The Lost Symbol	Inmate	Episode: "As Above, So Below"
2022–2023	Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight	Alfie (voice)	4 episodes
2023	Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur	Ahmed (voice)	4 episodes
	City on Fire	Detective Ali Parsa	8 episodes
2024	The Boys	Sameer Shah	2 episodes

Video games

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2012	Diablo III	Additional Voices
	Unit 13	Informant 1
	Spec Ops: The Line	Staff Sergeant John Lugo
	Call of Duty: Black Ops II	Farid, Mujahideen Soldier
2015	Call of Duty: Black Ops III	Additional Voices
2016	Titanfall 2	Militia Captain
	1979 Revolution: Black Friday	Babak Azadi
	Mafia III	Additional Voices
	Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare	Victor 'Gator' Diallo
2018	Thief of Thieves	Corbin "Chip" Tavistock
2019	Metro Exodus	Cannibal, Child of the Forest
	Days Gone	Additional Voices
	Rage 2	Miscellaneous Voices
	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	Additional Voice
2020	Disintegration	Ox-eye, Outlaw, Redshirt
2021	The Artful Escape	Talish, Hyperionite 3

Short film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2009	Not Necessary	Larry Dallas
	Diplomacy	American Interpreter
	Stars	The Pimp
2010	An Idle Dream	Pascal
2011	The Perfect Meal	Social Worker (voice)
2018	Goliath 22	Omar

External links

• Omid Abtahi at IMDb
• TITANS OF HOLLYWOOD: Tinsel Town's Spotlights Shine on CSUF Alumni by Cathi Douglas '80, California State University, Fullerton TITAN Magazine (calstate.fullerton.edu), 2011
• 'Mockingjay' casts Omid Abtahi as Homes by Andrew Sims (hypable.com), September 24, 2013
• Alumnus Omid Abtahi cast in Hunger Games by Ethan Hawke (ocregister.com), Sept. 17, 2014 (Updated: Sept. 30, 2014)
• Interviews with Young Iranians: Omid Abtahi, Actor by ParsArts.com - 24 Jan 2007