Omar Elba Arabic عمر علبة formerly Alexander Black born September 19 1983 is an Egyptianborn American actor best known for costarring alongside Tom Hanks in the 2016 movie A Hologram for the King He also had a recurring role as Mark Green in the Limetown television series Elba also starred in Tim credited as Alexander Black a 2016 short film about the Ego Id and Superego From 2016 until 2018 Elba went by the name Alexander Black to avoid being typecast in an industry which was stereotyping ethnic actors This led to at least one film critic believing that an American white actor had been cast for the role of Yousef the local Arab driver in A Hologram for the King Description above from the Wikipedia article Omar Elba licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia