You might recognize Zeeko Zaki, an Egyptian-born actor, for his crucial role as Special Agent Omar Adom “OA” Zidan on the hit drama series, FBI. Every Tuesday night, the actor slips into his role as an FBI agent, bringing down the bad guys and working alongside his partner Maggie (Missy Peregrym).
But while you see his fictional life play out on the popular TV program, you may not know all too much about the actor’s personal life. Find out where Zaki started, how he scored the role of OA and everything else there is to know about the actor’s life.
Zeeko Zaki’s early life
Zaki was born on January 18, 1990, in Alexandria, Egypt, but moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he grew up, at a young age. The soon-to-be actor faced some difficulties growing up.
“Growing up as a Muslim in America did impact me—for example, when you’re growing up you kind of want to fit into the status quo,” Zaki explained in an interview. “You know, girls at school wanted that All-American boyfriend, and I was the one Arab guy in class.”
Zaki’s passion for acting first sparked while in high school, after seeing a production of his school’s musical, Seussical. After that, he decided to take on a role for himself, which he did in a production of Beauty and the Beast. Soon after, he began attending Temple University where he studied business, but it wasn’t long before he got the acting bug again and transferred to Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina to study the craft.
The actor begins to book roles
Although he didn’t book FBI until a bit later, Zaki began to take on smaller parts in the industry. His first official role was in the film Stuck in Love (2012), which starred Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connelly. Following that role, he had a few minor parts in Homeland (2012), Heart of the Country (2013) and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015).
In 2017, he scored a recurring role in the drama series Six, which he followed with 24: Legacy. Afterwards, he continued to take on smaller parts in shows like NCIS: Los Angeles, but it wasn’t long before he would be cast in his biggest role yet.
Zeeko Zaki becomes Special Agent OA
He’s known for the leading role of Special Agent OA, which began in 2018, but the background of how he booked it is less known. Upon scoring the part, Zaki became the first Egyptian-born actor to lead a major US TV show. And despite facing struggles of fitting in as a kid, he stayed true to his roots, which has obviously paid off.
“There are Arab actors who have changed their names and hidden their ethnicity, but career-wise I always got behind it,” Zaki shared. “I was typecast the hell out of, but I thought, ‘Screw it, let’s embrace the stereotype and make some money now.’ … Thank God, I never ran away from it.”
Surprisingly, the ethnicity of the character he was auditioning for was not what he expected, but that didn’t hold him back.
“I was told it was a Latino character when I was recording my audition tape, but what my manager purposely didn’t tell me was that no one had actually asked me to audition,” Zaki recalled. “I was in a bit of a rut at the time. Earlier that day I had blown an audition and then went to the ATM and saw that I only had $300 left in my bank account.”
Eventually he got in front of FBI creator and police procedural legend, Dick Wolf. Despite a nerve-wracking audition, Zaki nailed it and scored the role.
How the role has challenged him
While taking on a major role in a TV series is enough of a pressure situation, Zaki faced even more as he got into the swing of things. The actor has talked about the physical demand of portraying an FBI agent and how he has worked to stay in shape for the role.
“The hardest part is just the physical demand and the shoot schedule,” Zaki said. “Me and Missy [Peregrym] are in about 90 to 95 percent of the scenes in an episode, so we’re first in, last out, five to six days a week, and it’s intense.”
Deal of the Day
He added, “Fitness and physical health have been a big focus of mine for the past seven years. I lost over a hundred pounds, so being able to keep a workout routine while filming has been a big challenge, too.”
Regardless of the struggles he’s faced, both in his childhood and as a working actor, Zaki is grateful he gets to portray a character so close to him.
He explained, “I just want to represent a storyline or a voice that hasn’t really been represented in TV.”
