Did you know Bohemian Rhapsody star Rami Malek has an identical twin brother? We didn’t either. The 42-year-old actor’s twin brother is named Sami Malek, and the duo have made several public appearances together, including the 2019 Golden Globes After Party. But aside from making us see double, Rami and Sami live very different lives.
From working as a school teacher to being a “bad boy” growing up, here’s everything you might want to know about Rami Malek's twin brother, Sami Malek.
Yup, Rami and Sami “were troublemakers” (Rami’s words, not ours). While appearing with his twin on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2015, Rami recalled how they switched places in college.
“So [Sami] calls me one day... He goes, ‘Hey, do you know a Greek monologue from a Greek tragedy?’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, of course, I’ve just been doing this for four years,’” The Little Things actor shared. “He goes, ‘Listen, I need you to come down to my university...’ He goes, ‘I need you to do this for my class. It’s gonna give me the points I need to get my degree...’” Naturally, Rami agreed.
Rami revealed how Sami’s professor at the time knew something was up. “And I deliver this monologue in front of the entire lecture hall and I get a few [bits of] applause, people dig it. And I think she starts looking at me kind of accusatorially, like, ‘Where the hell did you come up with that?’” Rami explained, “And I go, ‘Um, it’s just a hobby.’”
When the impressed teacher asked Rami to perform the monologue in front of her other class, he quickly plotted his escape: “I go, ‘Did I get the points that I’m going to need to pass the class and get my degree?’ And she goes, ‘Yeah, you got the points.’ I go, ‘My car’s parked in the red, I gotta go!’”
Aside from being pranksters in college, Rami and Sami were quite the scheming pair growing up as well. In an interview with Esquire UK, the No Time to Die actor detailed how he and Sami scored free pizza for their classmates.
“If you read a book you got a gift certificate to Pizza Hut or something,” he told the publication. “My brother and I got our dad’s tape recorder and we would read the books on tape and sell them to the other kids so they could not only get the scores they needed but also cash in on some free pizza. We saw an opportunity and we took it. I was a pretty resourceful kid.” OK, dynamic duo.
Speaking of the classroom, Sami is a school teacher. He currently works as a high school English teacher at the STEM Academy of Hollywood.
Per Sami’s bio on the official website, the 42-year-old double majored in American Literature & Culture as well as African-American Studies while attending UCLA.
Sami went on to earn a Master of Arts in Secondary English Education from Loyola Marymount University. He kickstarted his teaching career with Teach for America and has gone on to teach different levels of English since graduating from college.
The twin brothers were born in 1981 to parents Nelly Abdel-Malek and Said Malek, who were both Egyptian immigrants. The boys grew up in Los Angeles (along with their older sister, Yasmine) and the Mr. Robot alum has been candid about his upbringing.
In an exclusive interview with The New Yorker in October 2018, Rami shared how he and his twin brother grew up speaking Arabic. “I felt that we stuck out like a sore thumb, as a family, our traditions,” he told the outlet. “Going to school with that type of consciousness, and feeling like we were wearing our heritage on our sleeves, was always something that was confusing.”
According to the Daily Mirror, the Oppenheimer star opened up about how his father wanted him and his siblings to stay close with their extended family. “I have cousins, yeah. I always refer to them as my immediate family and my brother the other day was, like, ‘They’re not your immediate family, you just grew up thinking that.’ As far as my father was concerned, we were going to know these people,” Rami said.
The twin brothers have always shown their support for each other throughout their career endeavors. Back in 2019, Sami accompanied his brother to the 2019 Golden Globes and the 91st annual Academy Awards, where Rami took home the award for Best Actor (at both events) for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
While talking to Access Hollywood, Sami revealed that he “figured” his twin brother would win the Oscar. “Well, I could tell you I’m speechless, but at the same time, I kind of figured my boy had it in the bag because he killed it,” he said at the time.
The twins’ father, Said Malek, sadly passed away in 2006, which is the same year Rami made his feature film debut as Pharaoh Ahkmenrah in Night at the Museum.
In a February 2020 interview with Esquire UK, Rami shared how his dad introduced him and his siblings to classical movies and books. “After dinner, you’d almost gravitate towards him because you knew something good was coming, especially if he had at least two of us there, and if it was all three kids…he was gifted, to say the least,” Rami explained.
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