Elyes Gabel

2001–2012: Early career

Gabel made his debut in 2001 as the character Jean-Claude Tournier in episode titled Breaking point of series 15 of BBC medical drama Casualty. In 2002, Gabel dropped out of drama school to appear on the children's fantasy sitcom I Love Mummy where he portrayed Pharaoh Prince Nuffratuti (Prince Nuff)^[22] of Abu Simbel, who is unable to ascend to the afterlife until he has completed his scroll of tasks. In 2004, he appeared as Steve in BBC One medical soap opera Doctors. In the same year, Gabel appeared as two different characters in different episodes of Casualty. He joined as series regular character Gurpreet Guppy Sandhu in the same show as a part of series 19.^[23] He was nominated as Most Popular Newcomer at the 2005 National Television Awards for the role.^[24] He also appeared as Gurpreet in episode four titled "Teacher's Pet" of Casualty@Holby City, a nine part special crossover series of Casualty and its spin off Holby City in 2005. He decided to leave Casualty in 2007 to pursue new acting challenges and concentrate on recording music with his band.^[25]

In 2008, he made his film debut portraying the character Ben in American supernatural horror film Boogeyman 3, the final installment of the Boogeyman film series. He went on to appear as Danny in Charlie Brooker's horror comedy drama miniseries based on a zombie outbreak titled Dead Set.^[26] In the same year, Gabel appeared as Vimal, a trainee priest, in the BBC drama Apparitions, alongside Martin Shaw. The first episode aired on BBC One on 13 November 2008.^[27] He then starred as P.E. teacher Rob Cleaver in the BBC One school drama Waterloo Road from series 4, which began on 7 January 2009.^[28] In 2010, Gabel starred in the 6-part British police procedural series Identity as DC Jose Rodriguez on ITV, a member of the identity unit.^[28] In the same year, he lent his voice to Apache: Air Assault, a combat flight simulator video game. In 2011, He played Prince Djem, brother of Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire in Showtime's The Borgias. In the same year, he played Shahrouz in the second series of Psychoville and as Ahmed in war torn Baghdad based hostage drama Kingdom of Dust (2011).

He appeared as the Dothraki "Bloodrider" Rakharo, loyal bodyguard of Daenerys Targaryen in season 1 and the beginning of season 2 of HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones.^[29] According to the showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the journey of his character in the show had to be cut short as he quit the show to pursue projects that put him more front and center.^[30] In 2011, he joined the cast of CIA procedural Fox pilot Exit Strategy, portraying transport expert Tarik Fayad alongside Ethan Hawke^[31] but the show was dropped after being considered for a midseason airing^[32] and later released as a television film. In the same year, he appeared as Jaz in British coming of age drama Everywhere and Nowhere alongside James Floyd and Adam Deacon.^[33] In 2012, he appeared as Troy Vargas in David Hubbard's Widow Detective.^[34][35] In the same year, he appeared as Umar in the Silent Witness two-part episode "And Then I Fell in Love".

That same year, Gabel founded his own production company Roughened Verse Entertainment and went to pursue more roles in the United States.

2013–present: Career in the U.S.

In 2013, Gabel starred as Detective Adam Lucas in the third season of the American medical/crime comedy drama television series, Body of Proof on ABC.^[36][37] His character Adam Lucas was described as young, smart, a rebel and a Philadelphia native, who is a new entrant in the Philadelphia Homicide division.^[38] The show was ABC's third most-watched show and yet was cancelled by the channel after the third season.^[39] He appeared as Ruan Sternwood in Eran Creevy's action thriller Welcome to the Punch alongside James McAvoy, Mark Strong, and Andrea Riseborough.^[40] In the same year, he appeared as a young virologist Andrew Fassbach in World War Z, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Max Brooks.^[41][29]

Gabel starred as an eccentric computing genius Walter O'Brien on the American drama series Scorpion by Nick Santora on CBS, based on the real life of Walter O'Brien.^[42][43][44] According to the show creator Nick Santora, "Gabel was able to play the difficulty of expressing emotion while being emotional" for the character of Walter O'Brien, who had difficulty processing and expressing emotions.^[45] The series debuted on 22 September 2014 and became the highest rated and highest streamed drama for CBS.^[46][47] Scorpion also won The Golden Nymph award for 'Best Action & Science Fiction TV Series' in Monte-Carlo Television Festival (2018).^[48] The series was cancelled after four seasons and 93 episodes, despite having higher ratings than other cancellations^[49] with the last airing on 16 April 2018.^[50] Gabel starred in all 93 episodes of the series and was termed as one of the "11 Breakout Stars of the Fall TV Season 2014" by TheWrap^[51] and TVLine.^[52] In the same year, he made an appearance in a crossover episode of Scorpion with American action television series NCIS: Los Angeles.^[53]

In Christopher Nolan's science fiction film Interstellar,^[54][55] which premiered on 26 October 2014, Gabel had a small cameo appearance as the administrator who fanboyed over the lead character played by Matthew McConaughey and showed him to his quarters.

In November 2014, he was seen in J. C. Chandor's American crime drama film A Most Violent Year,^[56] which was among "323 feature films eligible for the 87th Academy Awards" as announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^[57] A Most Violent Year premiered to great critical acclaim. Gabel played Supporting Lead. Several critics were much impressed by his portrayal of Latin American immigrant "Julian", who becomes the sacrificial lamb in a politically motivated barter. "If there were an Oscar for best actor in a single scene, Gabel should win for his mad soliloquy on repentance and despair."^[58]

In 2015, he appeared as Adem Qasim, again a Supporting Lead role, in British spy thriller film Spooks: The Greater Good alongside Kit Harington and Jennifer Ehle.^[59][60] He is the primary antagonist of the film, a terrorist who escapes MI5 custody thanks to a traitor in MI5's leadership.

In 2019, Gabel voiced the superhero and Legion of Super-Heroes member Thomas Kallor, also known as Star Boy, in DC Entertainment's direct-to-video animated superhero film Justice League vs. the Fatal Five.^[61][62] Its world premiere was at WonderCon (March 29–31, 2019).^[63]

In 2020, he joined the cast of Suspicion on Apple TV+^[64][65] an eight part thriller series which premiered on 4 February 2022, based on the Israeli TV series False Flag, Gabel portrayed British citizen Sean Tilson^[66] alongside Uma Thurman and Kunal Nayyar.^[67][68]

2017–present: Filmmaking

In 2017, Gabel directed the pilot episode titled "Black White & a shade of grey" of TV series Stakes.^[69] In the same year he wrote, produced, directed and starred in his own passion project Game Show Hurt a piece that tells the story about a man who creates and hosts a game show which unconsciously plays out elements of the past. It is set to release soon.^[70] As the third filmmaker project of 2017, Gabel directed and produced a short feature film titled Grimshaw^[71] based on drug addiction and regression of individual freedom.^[72] The film gained critical acclaim, with wins for Best Narrative and honorable mentions as Best Featurette and Gabel himself gained a nomination as and a win as Best Director at two different film festivals.^[73]

Music

Gabel is a singer, songwriter^[21] and a guitarist who also fronts a band El & The Broken Bones.^[78] He considers music as passion and has expressed his love for emotional and haunting scores.^[79] Gabel along with his Casualty costar, Luke Bailey performed a rendition of The Beatles song "I Saw Her Standing There" in 2005 edition of annual BBC charity telethon for disadvantaged children and young people in the UK, Children in Need.^[80][81] In 2008, Gabel recorded a single along with Luke Bailey, Stephen Nicholas, Lee Otway, Junior Witter and Girls Aloud, under the collaboration UK Flow, a campaign aimed at raising money to fight the spate of knife crimes.^[82][83] In 2016, he did a karaoke rendition of Elton John's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" alongside his costar Katharine McPhee in the season 2 episode "Sun of a Gun"^[84] and a musical in the season 4 episode "Extinction" (2017) for his show Scorpion.^[85]

Film

Television

As writer, producer and director