Rami Malek has an identical twin brother and he leads a very different life

Rami Malek has an identical twin who lives a far more conventional life than his Oscar-winning brother, with the pair admitting to once pretending to be each other.

Rami, who turns 42 tomorrow (May 12), has had an enviable career with roles in Mr Robot, No Time to Die and The Little Things - not to mention his performance as Freddie Mercury in the 2018 Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, for which he won an Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG award.

But while the star is making a name for himself in Hollywood, his twin brother - who is called Sami Malek and is four minutes younger than Rami - opted to keep himself firmly out of the spotlight and instead pursued a career in education and now works as teacher.

According to his profile on the STEM Academy of Hollywood website, Sami ‘double majored in American Literature & Culture and African-American Studies from UCLA’, before going on to complete a ‘Master of Arts in Secondary English Education from Loyola Marymount University’.

He started his career in teaching through Teach for America and now works as an English teacher.

Rami and Sami share a close bond, as many sets of twins do - and they’ve even used their likeness to their advantage in the past, as the actor explained to Jimmy Kimmel back in 2015.

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He revealed: "So he calls me one day... he goes, 'Hey, do you know a Greek monologue from a Greek tragedy?'

"Yeah, of course, I've just been doing this for four years. He goes, 'Listen, I need you to come down to my university' - a major American university here in Los Angeles.

"He goes, 'I need you to do this for my class. It's gonna give me the points I need.

"I go, 'Yeah I'm gonna get my points and we're gonna make this happen.'

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"And I deliver this monologue in front of the entire lecture hall and I get a few [bits of] applause, people dig it. And I think she starts looking at me kind of accusatorially, like, 'Where the hell did you come up with that?'

"I told her, 'Er, it's just a hobby.’”

Rami went on to say they ‘don't look alike as much as we used to’, so it’s unlikely they’d get away with the same stunt today - especially given how famous he is.

The talented family also includes older sister Yasmine who works as an emergency room doctor.

Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at UNILAD who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats.