Haithem Badrani

Haithem Badrani was born in Basra, an Iraqi city located on the southern border between Kuwait and Iran. One of eight children whose father worked two jobs, Haithem's only true escape was television. He found solace in the American Westerns and TV series he watched every day. The actors (John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Lee Majors, and the like) spoke to him in a way he hadn't expected; he now knew what he would do with his life. He immigrated to America in August of 1994. In early 2000, Haithem began taking acting classes at various studios in Nashville, Tn. Studying with Alan Dysert, Brad Wilson, and Holly Allen. Haithem became a United States Citizen on March 24, 2005, But being serious about his dream and sensing Nashville had very little left to offer him, he packed up his belongings and headed west to Los Angeles. Upon arrival in 2010, he immediately enrolled in Stella Adler Acting School in Hollywood, Also, as a fluent Arabic speaker, he has learned accent reduction and dialect training at Los Angeles City College. Haithem Badrani was recently cast in Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016), and looks to make a big impact in the cinematic arts from this moment on.