{
 "id": "source/britannica-mahershala-ali",
 "class": "source",
 "slug": "britannica-mahershala-ali",
 "label": {
  "en": "Mahershala Ali — Encyclopaedia Britannica"
 },
 "summary": {
  "ar": "مدخل موسوعة بريتانيكا عن ماهرشالا علي؛ يؤكد مولده في أوكلاند سنة 1974، ويذكر صراحة أنه اعتنق «طائفة الإسلام الأحمدية» أثناء دراسته في جامعة نيويورك وغيّر اسمه الأخير إلى علي، ويوثّق مسيرته حتى 2026.",
  "en": "Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on Mahershala Ali; it confirms his birth in Oakland in 1974, states expressly that while at New York University he 'converted to the Aḥmadiyyah sect of Islam' and changed his last name to Ali, and documents his career to 2026."
 },
 "stub": false,
 "wings": [],
 "regions": [],
 "periods": [],
 "tags": [],
 "aliases": [],
 "themes": [],
 "data": {
  "kind": "reference_data",
  "type": "web",
  "title": "Mahershala Ali",
  "author": [
   {
    "family": "Encyclopaedia Britannica editors",
    "given": ""
   }
  ],
  "issued": {
   "date-parts": [
    [
     2017,
     6,
     20
    ]
   ]
  },
  "publisher": "Encyclopaedia Britannica",
  "URL": "https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mahershala-Ali",
  "language": "en",
  "reliability_note": "Reference entry read in full on 25 October 2026 (published 20 June 2017, updated 23 October 2026). It gives his birth on 16 February 1974 at Oakland, California, his Hayward upbringing by a Baptist minister mother, the Saint Mary's College basketball scholarship (graduated 1996), the California Shakespeare apprenticeship, and the NYU Tisch MFA (2000) — and states: 'While studying there, he converted to the Aḥmadiyyah sect of Islam and changed his last name to Ali'; its FAQ repeats that he 'converted to the Aḥmadiyyah sect of Islam when he was in his twenties'. This is one of the independent attestations on which the person record's ahmadiyya segment rests. Career coverage includes The 4400, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), the rap albums as Prince Ali, House of Cards, Free State of Jones, Moonlight and Green Book, his Sufi-leader role in Ramy (2020), Swan Song (2021), Leave the World Behind (2023), Jurassic World Rebirth (2025), Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (2026), and the Blade voice cameo in Eternals (2021) with his 2026 statements that he would no longer appear as the character.",
  "open_access": true,
  "status": {
   "review": "published",
   "generated_by": "Muse (Muse Spark 1.3)"
  }
 },
 "prose": {},
 "degree": 0,
 "contemporaries": [],
 "updated": "2026-10-25",
 "connections": [],
 "related": [],
 "license": {
  "prose": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
  "data": "CC0 1.0"
 }
}