Biografía

His characters Ali G, Borat, Brüno and Admiral General Aladeen

Tall, thin frame

Propensity for strange, exaggerated accents

Intentionally irritating, bizzare characters

Regularly cast in period pieces as annoying comic relief/antagonists

In contrast to his characters, he is a soft-spoken, gentlemanly Cambridge man who considered pursuing a PhD before going into comedy.

Appears on talk shows in character; he has rarely appeared as his real self. Nevertheless, he did appear as himself on the Golden Globe Awards show in 2007, as well as on the NPR radio talk show "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross. He was also asked to appear in character (as Borat) at the Oscars, but refused and went as himself.

Gave 2004 Harvard class day address in character as Ali G.

For Borat, Sacha takes about 6 weeks to grow body, head, and facial hair. For Ali G., the facial hair takes about 4 weeks to grow. When preparing for Brüno, he shaves all of his hair (including body hair), and works out and cleans his body vigorously.

When Baron Cohen made a surprise appearance as Ali G at the 2016 Academy Awards (it was truly a surprise-show producers had told him not to do it), his wife, Isla Fisher had to be complicit in the prank, and smuggled the Ali G costume into the awards ceremony under her dress. She then had to stand outside a door backstage at the Oscars while Baron Cohen changed inside and producers kept knocking to see what he was up to. "I had to lie to everyone, which made me feel really guilty," Fisher said on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Afterward Fisher said she "went straight to the bar, I'm not gonna lie.".

Borat is based actually on a guy I met in southern Russia. I can't remember his name. He was a doctor. The moment I met him I was totally crying. He was a hysterically funny guy, albeit totally unintentionally.

I remember, when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.' I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic.

I've been in a bizarre situation, where a country has declared me as its number-one enemy. It's inherently a comic situation. I mean, it's always risky when you don't go down the normal route. I wish I would've been there at the briefing that Bush got about who I am, who Borat is. It would have had to be great.

I think that, essentially, I'm a private person, and to reconcile that with being famous is a hard thing. So I've been trying to have my cake and eat it too - to have my character be famous yet still lead a normal life where I'm not trapped by fame and recognizability... I guess I've been greedy. Maybe it's time to let go.

It's wonderful that the films are successful, but every new person who sees the movie is one less person I can be 'Borat' or 'Brüno' with again, so finishing a movie means having to say goodbye. Admitting that you're never going to play the character again is like saying goodbye to a loved one. And that's hard.