Film & TV
Haaz Sleiman
born 1976 · actor
Lebanese actor of The Visitor and Killing Jesus who, after immigrating at 21, lived in metro Detroit and earned a computer science degree at Wayne State University.
- Born
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
age 50- Detroit years
- late 1990s–early 2000s
- Field
- Film & TV
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Haaz Sleiman was born in the United Arab Emirates in 1976 and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. At twenty-one he immigrated to the United States and settled in metro Detroit, home to one of the largest Arab American communities in the country, where he studied at Wayne State University and earned a bachelor's degree in computer science. It was during his student years that acting took hold, and after graduating he left for Los Angeles to pursue it. His breakthrough came as Tarek, the Syrian drummer whose detention sets the story in motion in Tom McCarthy's The Visitor (2007), a performance that earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination. He went on to roles in American series such as Nurse Jackie and played Jesus in the National Geographic miniseries Killing Jesus (2015). Wayne State, not a drama school, was where his path to the screen began.
Highlights
- Tarek in The Visitor (2007); Independent Spirit Award nomination
- Jesus in the miniseries Killing Jesus (2015)
- Computer science degree from Wayne State University
- Immigrated from Lebanon to metro Detroit at 21
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · late 1990s–early 2000s
Wayne State University
Sleiman earned a bachelor's degree in computer science here after immigrating from Lebanon.