Morocco Omari (born May 7, 1975) is an American film, television, and theater actor, screenwriter, producer, and a director. He was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He is best known for his role as Tariq in the Hip-Hop television drama series ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'', '' Chicago Fire'' on NBC, ''

Prison Break ''Prison Break'' is an American serial (radio and television), serial drama television show, television series created by Paul Scheuring for Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. The series revolves around two brothers, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purce ...

'', '' Homeland'' on

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

, ''

Malcolm & Eddie ''Malcolm & Eddie'' is an American sitcom that premiered August 26, 1996, on UPN, and ran for four seasons, airing its final episode on May 22, 2000. This series starred Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Eddie Griffin in the lead roles. The program was ...

'', ''

Early Edition ''Early Edition'' is an American fantasy comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from September 28, 1996, to May 27, 2000. Set in Chicago, Illinois, it follows the adventures of a man who mysteriously receives each ''Chicago Sun-Times'' ...

'', ''

NCIS NCIS or N.C.I.S. may refer to: Law enforcement * National Criminal Intelligence Service, the predecessor to the Serious Organised Crime Agency of the United Kingdom * Naval Criminal Investigative Service, a United States law enforcement and intelli ...

'' on CBS; '' The Beast'', and '' 24''. He co-stars in ''Empire'' with Terrence Howard and

Taraji Henson Taraji Penda Henson ( ; born September 11, 1970) is an American actress. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in '' Baby Boy'' (2001). Sh ...

. Morocco's film credits also include ''

21 Bridges ''21 Bridges'' is a 2019 American action thriller film directed by Brian Kirk and written by Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael Carnahan, based on a story by Mervis. The film stars Chadwick Boseman as an NYPD Detective who shuts down the 21 riv ...

'' '' Gun Hill'', ''

Half Past Dead 2 ''Half Past Dead 2'' is a 2007 American action film directed by Art Camacho and starring Bill Goldberg and Kurupt. It is a sequel to the 2002 film ''Half Past Dead''. Kurupt and Tony Plana are the only actors to return from the first film. The fi ...

'', '' Kubuku Rides'', and ''

Momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...

''. His theater credits include ''

Pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

'', ''

Intimate Apparel Undergarments, underclothing, or underwear are items of clothing worn beneath outer clothes, usually in direct contact with the skin, although they may comprise more than a single layer. They serve to keep outer garments from being soiled o ...

'', ''Knock Me a Kiss'', and ''Blues for an Alabama Sky''. Morocco directed ''Good Intentions'', ''(Mis) Leading Man'', and ''Mission Mom: Possible''. He wrote and produced the short film ''The Male Groupie''.

Early life

Morocco grew up on the West Side, Chicago. He says of his early life: "Looking back, I had to be a storyteller; we didn't have a whole lot of outlets on the West Side. But it wasn't until after I was shot at - that I sat down and thought about what I really wanted to do".

Career

Morocco's acting career starting in 1998 after being in the

U.S. Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary warfare, exped ...

, and returning from

Desert Storm The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

. He appeared in TV series such as ''

'' and ''

''. He had recurring roles in ''

Joan of Arcadia ''Joan of Arcadia'' is an American fantasy family drama television series telling the story of teenager Joan Girardi (Amber Tamblyn), who sees and speaks with God and performs tasks she is given. The series originally aired on Fridays on CBS for ...

'' with

Patrick Fabian Patrick Fabian (born December 7, 1964) is an American film, stage, and television actor. He is known for his role as attorney Howard Hamlin in ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). His film roles include '' End Game'' (2006), ''The Last Exorcism' ...

, the television show ''Dragnet'' with

Chuti Tiu Chuti Tiu is an American actress of Filipino and Chinese descent. She was Miss Illinois in 1994. Early life Tiu was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Filipino immigrants. Her father is of Chinese origin and her mother is Filipina-Spanish. Her p ...

and François Chau, '' Crossing Jordan'' and ''

'' with

Pauley Perrette Pauley Perrette (born March 27, 1969) is an American retired actress and singer. She played Abby Sciuto in the television series '' NCIS'' from 2003 to 2018. Early life Perrette was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised throughout the so ...

. He also appeared in Girlfriends, Season 1 Episode 2, as the man interested in Toni at Davis’ restaurant. In films, he has appeared in ''

Constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

'' and ''

''. As a voice over artist Morocco has worked on campaigns such as Powerade,

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

, Budweiser,

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

The Bible Experience Inspired by...The Bible Experience is an audio version of the Bible published by Zondervan. The script used is the Today's New International Version (TNIV) Bible translation. The re-enactment was performed by a cast of more than 200 African-Amer ...

, and

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Video Game

Awards

American Black Film Festival The American Black Film Festival (originally called the Acalpulco Black Film Festival) is an independent film festival that focuses primarily on black film—works by Black members of the film industry. It is held to recognize achievements of film ...

Award for Best Short Film, ''The Male Groupie''. *2009 - Best Short Film from

Hollywood Black Film Festival The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF), dubbed the "Black Sundance," is an annual six-day film festival held in Los Angeles, California dedicated to enhancing the careers of new and established black filmmaking professionals by bringing their w ...

for 'The (Mis)Leading Man'', produced by casting director Sharon King, MJ Allen and Kia J. Goodwin

References

External links

Meet the cast video series: Morocco OmariTheGrioLive: Morocco Omari from EmpireEmpire' Morocco Omari talks Roots, Acting and Love on his trip to RwandaMorocco Omari talks about Africa
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Omari, Morocco Living people 1975 births 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors African-American film directors African-American male actors American film directors American male film actors American male television actors American male video game actors Male actors from Chicago 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people