
Faysal Ahmed
Acting
Biography
In a professional capacity, Ahmed served as a Youth Program Coordinator at the Bedlam Theater in Minneapolis. He worked there on plays and poetry. He has also participated in an enrollment push for MNsure, a health insurance program in Minnesota. Ahmed and three other actors were picked from among more than 700 participants at a 2011 casting call at the Brian Coyle Community Center in Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis. According to the search casting director, Debbie DeLisi, the four were selected because they were "the chosen ones, that anointed group that stuck out." In early 2014, he revealed that he was going to Los Angeles by the spring season in order to continue his acting career. In 2016 he partook in A Stray that was directed by Musa Syeed.
Known For

Based on the stories of Stephen King, the series intertwines characters and themes from the fictional town of Castle Rock.
Castle Rock

Agent Matt Graver teams up with operative Alejandro Gillick to prevent Mexican drug cartels from smuggling terrorists across the United States border.
Sicario: Day of the Soldado

The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
Captain Phillips

On the eve of June 28th, 2011 Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson put everything at stake by illegally crossing the border from Somalia into Ethiopia. After months of research, planning and failed attempts, they were finally on their way to report on how the ruthless hunt for oil effected the population of the isolated and conflict-ridden Ogaden region. Five days later they lay wounded in the desert sand, shot and captured by the Ethiopian army. But when their initial reportage died, another story began. A story about lawlessness, propaganda and global politics. After a Kafkaesque trial they were sentenced to eleven years in prison for terrorism. And they were far from alone. Their cellmates were journalists, writers and politicians persecuted for not bowing down to dictatorship. Their reportage about oil was transformed into a story about ink, and their daily lives turned into a fight for survival inside the notorious Kality prison in Addis Ababa.
438 Days

A vast and detailed look into the behind the scenes of Captain Phillips (2013). Paul Greengrass, Tom Hanks, cast and crew members of the film takes us to a tour inside the ship and its actual location, the concept and creation of the film's most intense and dramatic sequences, and as usual, stories about the making the film which also highlights the four newcomers who played the important parts of the Somali pirates.
Capturing Captain Phillips

For a decade Kenya has been targeted by terrorist attacks of the Al-Shabaab. An atmosphere of anxiety and mistrust between Muslims and Christians is growing. Until in December 2015, Muslim bus passengers showed that solidarity can prevail.
Watu Wote: All of Us

Yakup, a Turkish music teacher seeking political asylum in New York, is trying to keep his head above water as he navigates the US immigration system. Working illegally in a restaurant kitchen with a lively group of fellow immigrants, he is laser focused on laying the groundwork to bring his wife and daughter abroad. In a desperate attempt to expedite the process, he seeks help from a group of shady fellow countrymen who resort to risky methods to get people out of Turkey. But things quickly go sideways and chances to reunite with his loved ones deteriorate by the minute.
Gazelle

Trying to outrun his bad luck, a young Muslim refugee in Minneapolis seems like he just might make it — until he crosses paths with a stray dog.
A Stray

How can two people save the world? Love each other. On Thanksgiving Day, two Minneapolis filmmakers--the son of a Somali imam and daughter of a white Baptist preacher--fall in love through their lenses and discover that their lives and families are mirror images. With empathy and humour, FIRST PERSON PLURAL shows two families--one Muslim, one Christian--grappling with doubt and imperfection to discover their common conflicts of love and faith.