Lior Ashkenazi (born in Ramat Gan, 1969), is an award-winning Israeli screen and stage

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

.

Biography

Lior ("Louis") Ashkenazi was born to Sephardi Jewish immigrants from Turkey who moved to Israel in 1964. He grew up in the Neveh Yehoshua neighborhood in Ramat Gan. His father, Shmuel, worked as a printer. His mother, Victoria, was a housewife. His parents spoke Ladino

Judaeo-Spanish

Judaeo-Spanish , in Israel commonly referred to as Ladino, and known locally as Judezmo, Djudeo-Espanyol, Djudezmo, Djudeo-Kasteyano, Spaniolit and other names, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish...

 at home, and it was his first language. At the age of 16, in the wake of problems in school, he moved to Kibbutz

Kibbutz

A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...

 Regavim

Regavim

Regavim is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located near Umm al-Fahm, it falls under the jurisdiction of Menashe Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 270....

.

In the Israel Defense Forces

Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...

, he served as a paratrooper. He studied acting at Beit Zvi

Beit Zvi

Beit Zvi is an acting school located in Ramat Gan, Israel. Graduates of the school are much in demand in the Israeli theater world.-History:...

. After graduating in 1994, he worked for Habima and Beersheba Theater. He starred in many plays at Beit Lessin Theater

Beit Lessin Theater

Beit Lessin Theater is a theater in Tel Aviv, Israel.Established in 1978 by Yaakov Agmon for the Histadrut, the theater resided in Lessin House until moving to the old residence of the Cameri Theater in 2003....

 under the direction of Zipi Pines, one of his teachers at Beit Zvi. He also appeared with the Cameri

Cameri

Cameri is a comune in the Province of Novara in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 90 km northeast of Turin and about 6 km northeast of Novara...

 Theater in Tel Aviv, although Beit Lessin remained his home base.

Ashkenazi was married to actress Shira Farber. They have a daughter, Ellie. After his divorce, he had a long relationship with playwright and screenwriter Sigal Avin, which also broke up.

Partial filmography

• Footnote
  Footnote (film)
  Footnote is a 2011 Israeli drama film written and directed by Joseph Cedar, starring Shlomo Bar Aba and Lior Ashkenazi. The plot revolves a power struggle between a father and his son who both teach at the Talmud department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The film won the Best Screenplay...
  
   (2011)
• Bolt] (2008) (Hebrew Dub)
• The Bubble
  The Bubble (2006 film)
  The Bubble is a 2006 romantic drama directed by Eytan Fox telling the story of two men who fall in love, one Israeli and one Palestinian...
  
   (HaBuah, 2006)
• BeTipul
  Betipul
  BeTipul is an Israeli television drama revolving around the personal and professional life of an Israeli psychologist, Reuven Dagan, played by Assi Dayan. The series portrays a psychologist who treats patients at his clinic five days a week and then seeks psychological treatment for himself...
  
   (2005)
• Mulan II
  Mulan II
  Mulan II is a 2004 American direct-to-video Disney animated feature directed by Darrell Rooney and Lynne Southerl and is a sequel to the 1998 animated film Mulan. The entire cast from the first film returned, except for Eddie Murphy , Miriam Margolyes , Chris Sanders and Matthew Wilder...
  
   (2005) (Hebrew Dub)
• Home on the Range (Mered Hachayot, 2004) (Hebrew Dub)
• Walk on Water
  Walk on Water (film)
  Walk on Water is an Israeli film released in 2004. It stars Lior Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, and Caroline Peters. It was directed by New York-born Israeli director Eytan Fox. The screenplay was written by Gal Uchovsky...
  
   (Lalechet Al HaMaim, 2004)
• Rutenberg (Ish HaHashmal, Electricity Man, 2003)
• Late Marriage (Hatuna Meuheret, 2001)
• Tarzan
  Tarzan (1999 film)
  Tarzan is a 1999 American animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on June 18, 1999...
  
   (1999) (Hebrew Dub)
• Mulan
  Mulan
  Mulan is a 1998 American animated film directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, with story by Robert D. San Souci and screenplay by Rita Hsiao, Philip LaZebnik, Chris Sanders, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, and Raymond Singer. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney...
  
   (1998) (Hebrew Dub)
• Pocahontas
  Pocahontas (1995 film)
  Pocahontas is the 33rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was originally released to selected theaters on June 16, 1995 by Walt Disney Pictures...
  
  (1996) (Hebrew Dub)

External links

• Lior Ashkenazi – An Actor's Actor from Jew Central