Zeeko Zaki

Zaki was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and immigrated with his parents Eman and Sherif Zaki to the United States when he was one month old. Zaki's maternal grandparents immigrated to the U.S. before he and his parents arrived.^[5] His extended family remained in Egypt. During his childhood Zaki spent summers in his hometown, his aunt has a villa in Agami Region where he and his relatives gather.^[6] He grew up in West Chester, Pennsylvania. His mother manages a salon in Wilmington, Delaware, and his father is a stylist. Zaki has two younger siblings: a brother, Zeyad, and a sister, Zeina.^[7]

Zaki discovered a passion for acting during his freshman year high school performance of Seussical at Unionville High School. He also acted in the community theatre group Unionville Players. He briefly attended Temple University in Philadelphia.

In 2010, Zaki moved to North Carolina, where he worked in theater before auditioning for television roles. He appeared in bit part roles in various films and television series before landing recurring roles in Six and 24: Legacy, portraying antagonists, and in Valor, in which he portrayed a door gunner of a U.S. Army special operations aviation unit. Zaki was cast in his first lead role playing Special Agent Zidan in Dick Wolf's procedural show FBI. The role was originally written for a Latino actor but Wolf, impressed by Zaki's audition tape, changed the character's ethnicity to mirror Zaki's background.^[8][9]

Zaki has said that he wants to prove to the world that Muslims and Arabs are not terrorists.^[10]

Zaki is a Muslim.^[3][11][12] Zaki spoke Egyptian Arabic at home until the age of six.^[11]