Morocco Omari (born May 7, 1975) is an American film, television, and theater actor, screenwriter, producer, and a director. He was born in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. He is best known for his role as Tariq in the Hip-Hop television drama series ''

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'', '' Chicago Fire'' on

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, ''

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'', ''

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'' on Showtime, '' Malcolm & Eddie'', '' Early Edition'', '' NCIS'' on CBS; '' The Beast'', ''P-Valley'', and '' 24''. He also co-starred in ''

'' with

Terrence Howard Terrence Dashon Howard (born March 11, 1969) is an American actor performing on film and television. He has received a Screen Actors Guild Awards, Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a Golden ...

and Taraji Henson. Morocco's film credits also include '' 21 Bridges, Gun Hill'', '' Half Past Dead 2'', '' Kubuku Rides'', and ''

Momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. ...

''. His theater credits include ''

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'', ''

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'', ''Knock Me a Kiss'', and ''Blues for an Alabama Sky''. Morocco directed ''Good Intentions'', ''(Mis) Leading Man'', and ''Mission Mom: Possible''. He wrote and produced the short film ''The Male Groupie''.

Early life

Morocco grew up on the

West Side, Chicago The West Side is one of the three major sections of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The others are the North Side and South Side. The West Side contains communities that are of historical and cultural importance to the history an ...

. He says of his early life: "Looking back, I had to be a storyteller; we didn't have a whole lot of outlets on the West Side. But it wasn't until after I was shot at - that I sat down and thought about what I really wanted to do".

Career

Morocco's acting career starting in 1998 after being in the U.S. Marines, and returning from

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. He appeared in TV series such as '' Malcolm & Eddie'' and '' Early Edition''. He had recurring roles in ''

Joan of Arcadia ''Joan of Arcadia'' is an American fantasy family drama television series telling the story of teenager Joan Girardi ( Amber Tamblyn), who sees and speaks with God and performs tasks she is given. The series originally aired on Fridays on CBS f ...

'' with Patrick Fabian, the television show ''Dragnet'' with Chuti Tiu and François Chau, ''

Crossing Jordan ''Crossing Jordan'' is an American crime drama television series created by Tim Kring, that aired on NBC from September 24, 2001, to May 16, 2007. It stars Jill Hennessy as Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, a crime-solving forensic pathologist employed ...

'' and '' NCIS'' with Pauley Perrette. He also appeared in Girlfriends, season 1 Episode 2, as the man interested in Toni at Davis’ restaurant. In films, he has appeared in ''

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'' and '' Half Past Dead 2''. As a voice over artist Morocco has worked on campaigns such as

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, The Bible Experience, and

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Filmography

Film

Television

Video Game

Awards

* American Black Film Festival Award for Best Short Film, ''The Male Groupie''. *2009 - Best Short Film from Hollywood Black Film Festival for ''The (Mis)Leading Man'', produced by casting director Sharon King, MJ Allen and Kia J. Goodwin

References

External links

Meet the cast video series: Morocco OmariTheGrioLive: Morocco Omari from EmpireEmpire' Morocco Omari talks Roots, Acting and Love on his trip to RwandaMorocco Omari talks about Africa
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Omari, Morocco Living people 1975 births 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors African-American film directors Film directors from Illinois American male film actors American male television actors American male video game actors Male actors from Chicago 20th-century African-American male actors 21st-century African-American male actors