Sacha Baron Cohen - Biography

In a nutshell

Aaah! Is it Borat? Is it Bruno? No, it's Sacha Baron Cohen! The English comedian and writer was born in Hammersmith, London in 1971 as the youngest of a Jewish family.

His early days saw him study at an amateur dramatic club in Cambridge (probably not the type of performances you're used to seeing him do now, we're sure).

After leaving University Sacha had a number of jobs including - believe it or not - a model, eventually appearing in a few magazines. If you happen to dig any out, can you send them our way? We'd love to take a look.

So how did Mr Baron Cohen end up with his arse in Eminem's face? Well, Channel 4 put out a call for new presenters and happened upon a tape of Sacha performing in character which eventually developed into Borat. So he ended up as Ali G on The Eleven O'Clock Show, interviewing guests and generally making a mockery of things. It proved to be such a success that his own show (called, you guessed it, Da Ali G Show) started in 2000 and won a BAFTA in 2001. Not bad, we suppose, but surely nothing compared with seeing Richard Madeley dressing up as Ali G during a slot on ITV's This Morning?

Sacha has said that the public were too accustomed to Ali G and Borat. But he wasn't done, quickly introducing us to Bruno - a loud, gay Austrian fashion presenter. Love it!

The movie was released in July 2009 to rave reviews. Sacha - as Bruno - presented the 2009 MTV Movie Awards. One of the best stunts (and nobody quite knows if it was set-up or not) saw Bruno drop down into the audience, upside down, with his bare bum cheeks right in the face of Eminem, who went slightly crazy and stormed out. Go, go and watch it online, now. We'll wait here for you.

Good, wasn't it?

Sacha has bagged himself a beautiful partner, ex-Home and Away actress Isla Fisher. She converted to Judaism in 2007 and the pair now have a baby daughter, Olive.

Did you know?