Nabeel El Khafif

Nabeel El Khafif is a Canadian-born actor, writer, and director, and former physician and surgeon. He has played a variety of roles on film and television, including 'X-men: Apocalypse', Stephen King's 'The Mist', 'The Art of More', and 'American Gothic'.Nabeel El Khafif was born January 2, 1984 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He is the eldest of two children from Gamila Zahran, a pharmacist, and Mahmoud El Khafif, an economist and diplomat with the United Nations. He is of Egyptian descent. Throughout elementary, middle, and high school Nabeel performed in school drama productions and often garnered the praise of the audience and his teachers. He excelled academically, skipping three grades, and finishing 13 years of schooling at the age of 15 (the Canadian system at the time had 13 grades). After being discouraged from pursuing a career in the performing arts, Nabeel attended the University of Waterloo where he studied Bioinformatics. He finished the 5 year program by the age of 20. By this point he was intent on pursuing a career in the performing arts, however he was forced to pick up a variety of odd jobs to support himself, and eventually gave in to family pressures again to pursue Medical school.He attended Medical school at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where his father had obtained a high level position at the United Nations. The curriculum was entirely delivered in French, and Nabeel was forced to learn a new language to pursue his studies as a doctor. Upon completion of his schooling he was immediately hired by the University of Geneva hospital as a surgical resident. He obtained a Master's degree in medicine and won several awards for his research on Pancreatic transplantation, which was subsequently published in a peer-reviewed journal. It was during this period that Nabeel realized he was quickly moving towards the fulfillment of a dream that "was not his." After much careful reflection, he resigned from his position at the hospital, and returned to Toronto to begin pursuing a career in Acting.Upon his return to Canada, Nabeel trained at the Second City Conservatory and the Professional Actor's Lab, both institutions being well known for their respective Alumni. His first film role was a minuscule appearance in X-men Apocalypse, and he has since appeared as recurring characters in a variety of television series. In late 2016, he was brought on board as a series regular in the Weinstein adaptation of Stephen King's novel "The Mist."Nabeel prides himself on being able to break rules, and push the boundaries set by other people's perceptions. He treasures roles that allow him to portray characters who are defined by the elements of their humanity as opposed to how they look. His teachers have referred to him as the 21st century Omar Sharif, to which he brashly replies "... there is only one Omar Sharif, and only one Nabeel El Khafif." Show less «