Hollywood Stars You Didn’t Know Are Israeli

Hollywood! Land of lights, autographs, creativity and stars. Before we begin, let us teach you a word or two, after all we are a school to learn Hebrew, aren’t we? So, star in Hebrew is כוכב (pronounced: koh-chav), and light in Hebrew is אור (pronounced: or). See? Easy! Now, let’s get down to business and let us introduce you to some Hollywood stars you didn’t know were Israelis.

Hollywood is full of directors, scriptwriters, producers and actors who are either Israeli or who have Israeli roots. In this blog post, we are going to mention a few them, and in some cases, we are even going to show you some of them speaking Hebrew. Maybe that is the motivation you need to start learning Hebrew yourself, today!

Israelis in Hollywood: Which actors and directors have an Israeli ID?

 Let’s make an agreement, if you know about any other Israelis that made their way in Hollywood and we didn’t mention them in this article, write their names in the comments below and we’ll make sure to add them to the 2nd part of this post. Deal? Yalla!

See now a few Israelis that are big stars in Hollywood. Did you know they were Israelis?

Natalie Portman

Before studying in Harvard, Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Even though she left Israel at a very early age, she kept on speaking Hebrew at home, and that is what enables her to give full interviews with the Israeli TV in the language of the country she born in.

Take a look at these interviews Natalie gave, speaking fluent Hebrew with just a bit of an American accent.

Mark Ivanir

Mark was born in Ukraine in 1968, and when he was very, very young, he moved with his entire family to Israel. He played an important role in “The Schindler’s List”, and has been a guest actor in a number of remarkable TV series, such as The Mentalist, 24, and CSI New York.

Mark also played the character Zvika Granor in the Israeli TV series “The Beauty and the Baker” we recommended you in an article we wrote a few weeks ago.

Odaya Rush

Odaya was born and raised in Haifa and is now living the dream in L.A. She took her first steps into the acting world in the Disney movie “The Odd Life of Timothy Green”, and then had key roles at the movies “The Giver” and “The Hunter’s Player”.

Even though she is one of the youngest members on this list, she has a very bright future waiting for her. We’re sure we are going to see her name on more than one movie poster in the near future. Way to go, Odaya!

Gal Gadot

Wonder Woman! We wrote about this fantastic actress when we showed you some Israeli women who have changed the world. Today, we want to give her the stage once again. Gal Gadot has done a phenomenal job. Since she was Miss Israel in 2004, her career has been constantly “in-crescendo”, and we couldn’t be prouder to say that she is, indeed, one of us!

Watch the amazing Gal Gadot speaking Hebrew in the super-funny-monologue she gave when she was the main guest on Saturday Night Live, during late 2017.

Lior Raz

Ok! We know that you already knew that this director, screenplay writer and actor was Israeli, but we had to mention him. Lior has created, based on his very own experiences, one of the biggest hits in the history of Israeli television. He was born in November 1971 in Jerusalem, and after moving to the United States in 1993 he became Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bodyguard. After that, he returned to Israel and studied Drama, following his life’s dream. The most important thing that happened next you all know; he wrote Fauda, directed it, played the main role in the series and was responsible for one of the best ever Israeli series available on Netflix. Way to go, Lior!

Learn Hebrew today and become the next superstar!

Learning Hebrew can open even more doors than you can imagine. Having a second language, that also has such historical significance, can enable you to succeed in life in a new, different way.

By joining one of our live and online Hebrew courses, you’ll meet amazing instructors and super interesting classmates who will join you on a path of discovery you’ll never regret you joined. Learn the language of our ancestors today, it might be the key to a new kind of success you didn’t think of before.