Biography
Mousa Kraish was born in 1975 in Brooklyn, NY to Palestinian-American parents. He attended Brooklyn College, where he studied film and creative writing. Following graduation and before picking up work as an actor, Kraish worked as a photographer and video cinematographer. He set his sights on performance properly by way of submission to the Atlantic Theater Company, where he trained for two years beginning in 2002. Kaish's earliest acting gigs were small stage productions, though he made his feature film debut in Ramin Bahrani's drama film "Man Push Cart" (2005). Shortly afterward, Kraish landed a role in Steven Spielberg's "Munich" (2005). He followed this turn with his own directing debut, a short film called "The Fourth Estate" (2006). Kraish's "Munich" role opened doors for roles in a number of other high profile films, notably Seth Rogen's "Superbad" (2008), Adam Sandler's "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" (2008), director Scott Derrickson's "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (2008), and "Fast & Furious" (2009). After this string of successes, Kraish began accruing recurring parts on popular television shows, including "Blue Bloods" (CBS 2010-) and "Parenthood" (NBC 2010-15). He returned his focus to film with the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy "The Dictator" (2012) and the indie hit "Echo Park" (2014), before returning once again to television with one-off parts in "Homeland" (Showtime 2011-) and "Transparent" (Amazon 2014-). In 2016, Kaish was cast in a costarring role on the fantasy series "American Gods" (Starz 2016-), on which he played the embodiment of the supernatural force known as the Jinn.
