Saïd Taghmaoui

Saïd Taghmaoui is a French actor and screenwriter of Moroccan background. His most recognizable role was in the action film "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," based on the G.I. Joe toy, comic book, and cartoon. Taghmaoui plays the communications expert and hacker of the G.I. Joe team, "Breaker" Abel Shaz. Early in his career, Taghmaoui co-wrote (with his friend director Mathieu Kassovitz) and acted in the French drama "La Haine." In the film, Taghmaoui's character, also named Saïd, is one of three friends who find themselves alienated and at odds with a racist and anti-immigrant environment in France. In the Gulf War comedy drama "Three Kings," Taghmaoui plays an Iraqi officer who interrogates and performs electroshock torture on Mark Wahlberg's character. Taghmaoui played another figure at odds with the United States government in "Traitor," as a member of a terrorist organization in Yemen who negotiates with the main character, played by Don Cheadle, working undercover as an arms dealer. In the political action thriller "Vantage Point," Taghmaoui plays yet another terrorist, this time a leader named Suarez who tries to assassinate the president of the United States. The premise of the film is the exploration of the same set of events leading up to the assassination from eight different points of view. Matthew Fox also costarred in the film as a secret service agent, and worked with Taghmaoui again when Taghmaoui had a relatively minor but recurring role on four episodes of the popular sci-fi drama series "Lost."