Kida Khodr Ramadan (born 8 October 1976) is a German actor and director. He has won several awards for his portrayal of Ali "Toni" Hamady in the series ''

4 Blocks ''4 Blocks'' is a German drama series. It stars Kida Khodr Ramadan as Ali "Toni" Hamadi, the leader of a drug cartel in Berlin- Neukölln which has strong connections with the Arab crime families including his clan. He is forced to postpone his pl ...

''.

Early life

Kida Khodr Ramadan was born in 1976 in Beirut as the fifth child of a

Mhallami The Mhallami, Mahallami, or Mardelli ( ar, محلّمي, Mḥallame; ku, Mehelmî; syr, ܡܚܠ̈ܡܝܐ, Mḥallmāye; tr, Mıhellemi) is an Arabic-speaking tribal ethnic group traditionally living in and around the city of Mardin, Turkey. Due ...

family. His father, Mohamad Ramadan, was a successful businessman. As the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

escalated and relatives of the family were killed, the family decided to leave Lebanon for Germany. They moved to

West-Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

, where they initially lived in a home for asylum seekers in

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...

. Ramadan went to the Hector-Peterson-Gesamtschule school in Kreuzberg. He said high school did not interest him and he left without qualification, and entered the local hip-hop and breakdance scene. He partook in street performances with Turkish and Arabic-speaking youths at

Kurfürstendamm The Kurfürstendamm (; colloquially ''Ku'damm'', ; en, Prince Elector Embankment) is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former ''Kurfürsten'' (prince-electors) of Brandenburg. The broad, long boulevar ...

and elsewhere.

Career

The Turkish-German director

Neco Çelik Neco Çelik (born 1972) is a Turkish-German filmmaker.# Resource Brown, Timothy S. “‘Keeping it Real’ in a Different ‘Hood: (African-) Americanization and Hip-hop in Germany.” In The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Bl ...

gave Ramadan his first break in 2003 after meeting him at a summer camp, giving him a role in ''Alltag'' (Everyday), a story about two youngsters who rob a bookies in

. His first project as solo director was "In Berlin wächst kein Orangenbaum" (In Berlin, No Orange Tree Grows), also as writer with Juri Sternburg, and producer, premiered at

Filmfest München The Munich International Film Festival (german: Filmfest München) is the largest summer film festival in Germany and second only in size and importance to the Berlinale. It has been held annually since 1983 and takes place in late-June/earl ...

Pop-up 2020.

Personal life

In 1996 he married Meryem in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. They have six children together.''„4 Blocks“-Star ist zum sechsten Mal Vater geworden''
Bei: ''t-online.de'', 2019-03-01 He plays

boules ''Boules'' () is a collective name for a wide range of games similar to bowls and bocce (In French: jeu or jeux, in Croatian: boćanje and in Italian: gioco or giochi) in which the objective is to throw or roll heavy balls (called in France, ...

competitively. He lives in Berlin.

References

1976 births Living people {{Germany-tv-actor-stub