Who is Alexej Manvelov, Netflix hit Dept Q's Kurdish actor who plays a former Syrian policeman?
The show, which had its premiere on May 29, has spent two weeks on Netflix's Top 10 English shows list, garnering more than 8.9 million viewers. It's currently the second most-watched English series worldwide.
One of the show's breakout characters is Akram Salim, played by Swedish-Kurdish actor Alexej Manvelov. Akram is a former Syrian policeman forced to flee his home country and work in IT, but he ingratiates himself with the new department becoming one of its lead investigators.
What is Dept Q about?
Set in Edinburgh, Dept Q follows the cantankerous and sarcastic Carl Morck (Matthew Goode), a top-notch English detective who returns to work following a shooting incident that led to the death of a police officer, with his investigative partner being permanently paralysed.
Racked with guilt, Carl is chosen to head the Scottish police force's cold-case unit, Department Q, which is formed more as a PR exercise than anything else.
But as Carl and his team sink their teeth into one case, about the disappearance of a lawyer who handled high-profile cases, dark secrets emerge involving some very powerful people.
Dept Q is written by Chandni Lakhani and Scott Frank; the latter is best known for writing and directing another Netflix hit Queen's Gambit. It's based on the book series Department Q, by Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen.
Who is Alexej Manvelov who plays Akram Salim?
A soft-spoken cop with deadly combative skills, Akram is introduced as the Scottish police force's IT guy, who's itching to prove himself. As the nine-part series progresses, it is revealed he's a former Syrian police officer who fled his country and is now living in Scotland as a refugee.
Akram quickly proves himself as an able partner to detective Carl, not least due to their tragic backgrounds – Akram escaping the horrors of working under a ruthless dictator, and Carl living with the consequences of the shooting incident that haunts him every day.
Manvelov, 43, was born to a Kurdish father from Syria and a Russian mother. He grew up in Sweden where he pursued his dream of becoming an actor. He has appeared in a number of Swedish shows with his breakout role being the Swedish thriller A Day and a Half, about a man who, desperate to reunite with his daughter, takes his ex-wife and a policeman hostage.
The film was written and directed by Swedish-Lebanese actor Fares Fares, who played Manvelov's role in a Danish film adaptation of Department Q called The Keeper of Lost Causes.
Manvelov has also appeared in the HBO miniseries Chernobyl and season three of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan on Prime Video.
Who else is on the show?
Besides Goode and Manvelov, Department Q is made up of James Hardy (Jamie Sives), detective Carl's former colleague who is now a paraplegic, and who finds new purpose by helping out the department with their cases.
Leah Byrne plays detective constable Rose Dickson, a young woman with a troubled past now looking for a chance to prove herself, while Kate Dickie plays detective chief superintendent Moira Jacobson, detective Carl's commanding officer.
Chloe Pirrie is Merritt Lingard an ambitious prosecutor whose unsolved disappearance is being investigated.
'Scott assembled one of the finest casts I've ever gotten to work with,' Goode said. 'It's just an incredible playpen for an actor. Leah Byrne is a stone-cold star. I felt like I've known Jamie Sives for a long time, we just get on so well. Alexej is joy, pure joy, capital J.'
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