Congrats! Moonlight actor Mahershala Ali and his wife, Amatus Sami-Karim, have welcomed their first child, he confirmed on Instagram on Friday, February 24.
Ali, 43, shared a sweet snap of his wife cuddling their newborn, which he captioned: “Bari (Bar-ee) Najma Ali 💜2/22/17 #pisces.”
The House of Cards star and Sami-Karim, who wed in 2013, first announced they were expecting in December.
The actor, who is in the running for best supporting actor for his role in Moonlight at the Oscars on Sunday, February 26, told Jimmy Kimmel last month that he and his wife were brainstorming names for their firstborn.
“We’re looking to do something simpler,” Ali told the talk show host — who is also emceeing the Oscars — when he stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on January 11.
“My wife’s name is Amatus Sami … but we’re going to do something a little bit simpler for our child,” he explained, vowing to still “keep it unique.”
The Oakland native also revealed that Mahershala is actually a nickname, and that his full name is even longer: Mahershalalhashbaz. “It’s the longest word in the Bible,” the Luke Cage actor, whose mother is a Christian minister, told Kimmel, explaining that it’s Hebrew and he was named after Isaiah’s second son. “It’s a symbolic name so he didn’t actually have to live through life with that name … but I have to live through life with that name,” he joked. “You should see TSA’s eyes.”
The actor, who plays a drug dealer mentor in the critically acclaimed film, gave a moving speech about his conversion to Islam and called for tolerance amid the current political climate when he won the SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor in Los Angeles last month.
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