Avi Nash is an American actor. He played

Siddiq Siddiq ( ar, صِدّیق, ; meaning "truthful") is an Islamic term and is given as an honorific title to certain individuals. The feminine gender for Siddiq is Siddiqah. The word is sometimes used as a title given to individuals by the Islamic pr ...

in the

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

television series '' The Walking Dead'' (2017–2020).

Early life

Nash was born in the United States, his father is

Indo-Guyanese Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are people of Indian origin who are Guyanese nationals tracing their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginnin ...

and his mother is from

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

. Nash started acting in senior year of high school off a dare to audition for the school play; prior to this, he identified primarily as a visual artist. Nash began attending Stanford University when he was 17 years old, performing with the Stanford Shakespeare Company. He was classmates with

Young the Giant Young the Giant is an American rock band that formed in Irvine, California, in 2004. The band's line-up consists of Sameer Gadhia ( lead vocals), Jacob Tilley (guitar), Eric Cannata (guitar), Payam Doostzadeh (bass guitar), and Francois Comtoi ...

's Sameer Gadhia, who encouraged Nash to seriously pursue acting dropping out himself to pursue a professional music career. So, after freshman year, Nash left Stanford to attend acting school under Anupam Kher at Actor Prepares in

for six months. However, he returned to complete his degree, citing conflicting feelings between his various interests. He returned to Stanford University and majored in Mathematical and Computational Sciences while studying architecture. Nash trained in theatre at the

London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is a drama school located in Hammersmith, London. It is the oldest specialist drama school in the British Isles and a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools. LAMDA's Principal i ...

and graduated with an MA in 2016.

Career

Prior to acting, he was a cook in a closed door restaurant (''puerta cerradas'') that he ran out of a hostel in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...

and conducted bike tours. He made his feature film debut in '' Learning to Drive'' alongside Sir

Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and tw ...

and

Patricia Clarkson Patricia Davies Clarkson (born December 29, 1959) is an American actress. She has starred in numerous leading and supporting roles in a variety of films ranging from independent film features to major film studio productions. Her accolades inc ...

, directed by Spanish director

Isabel Coixet Isabel Coixet Castillo (; born 9 April 1960 ) is a Spanish film director. She is one of the most prolific film directors of contemporary Spain, having directed twelve feature-length films since the beginning of her film career in 1988, in additio ...

. The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won First Runner Up for the People’s Choice Award. In 2017, Nash portrayed AMC's ''The Walking Dead'''s first male Muslim-American character, Siddiq, in season 8 of the show. As a result, he has attended different

comic book convention A comic book convention or comic-con is an event with a primary focus on comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book Fan (person), fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events ...

s throughout the years, including Walker Stalker Con.

Personal life

Nash can read and write in

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

. He studied

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

at Stanford and took his acting class in India completely in Hindi. Nash learned

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Port ...

from his ex-girlfriend while briefly living near the Brazilian border.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nash, Avi Living people American male television actors American male film actors American male actors of Indian descent American people of Guyanese descent Year of birth missing (living people)