Assaf Cohen (born October 31, 1972) is an American actor.

Early life

Cohen was born in

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is th ...

and raised in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was ...

, where his family settled after living for a number of years in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. He is of

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast an ...

ite,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

n and

i descent. Cohen graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

with a BA degree in Integrative Biology. Foregoing earlier plans of attending medical school, he instead pursued professional acting.

Career

Cohen worked for a few years at regional theaters such as The Magic,

Marin Shakespeare Company The Marin Shakespeare Company was established in 1989 at Dominican College’s Forest Meadows Amphitheatre in San Rafael, California, by Lesley Schisgall Currier and Robert Currier. The original Marin Shakespeare Festival, founded by John and A ...

Marin Theatre Company The Marin Theatre Company (MTC) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and professional LORT D regional theater located in Mill Valley, California. Jasson Minadakis is the company's Artistic Director and Meredith Suttles its Managing Director / CEO. ...

, TheatreWorks, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and PCPA Theaterfest. He then next moved east and earned an MFA degree in acting from the Professional Actors Training Program at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...

Mason Gross School of the Arts Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is named for Mason W. Gross, the sixteenth president of Rutgers. Mason Gross offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance, Theater, Dig ...

, where he studied under New York Acting teachers

William Esper The William Esper Studio was founded in 1965 as a school for the performing arts in Manhattan, New York. The school is dedicated to the acting technique of Sanford Meisner. Its founder, William "Bill" Esper, is often referred to as the best-known o ...

, Maggie Flanigan and Deborah Hedwall. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he performed at theaters including

South Coast Repertory South Coast Repertory (SCR) is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California. Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson, is led by Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Dire ...

and began his career in film and television.

Filmography

Film

Television

External links

*
Official Website

Hollywood Reporter: Cohen books USA pilot

Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Assaf American male television actors American male film actors 1972 births Living people American people of Yemeni descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Israeli descent American people of Yemeni-Jewish descent People from Mountain View, California Male actors from Palo Alto, California UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Rutgers University alumni