Araya Mengesha
Araya Mengesha is an actor.
Araya Mengesha is a Canadian actor whose biography carries a line almost nobody else's does: he is a claimant to the throne of Ethiopia, a monarchy abolished in 1974. It has nothing to do with the work, and it is impossible to leave out.
Canadian audiences knew him first as himself, on the children's documentary mystery series Mystery Hunters, which is an unusual apprenticeship for a dramatic actor and probably a useful one. The screen credits held here are few but well chosen. He is Elijah Hanford across Anne with an E, a recurring role in a period drama that took its 1900s setting seriously enough to give a Black character a real interior life rather than a lesson to deliver. He plays Pavel in the action film Nobody, and Tyler in the ballet-school series Tiny Pretty Things.
He currently stars as Mark Yohannes in Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, which is the biggest platform he has had and the most conventional. Four credits is a thin record to judge anyone on, so this page is short on purpose.
Movies (1)
TV (3)
Where to start with Araya Mengesha
Anne with an E is where to start. Elijah is a supporting part that the series treats as a person rather than a plot device, and Mengesha plays him with a wariness that the show earns rather than explains.
Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is the current job and the easiest to sample: procedurals are built so that any episode works as an entry point, and this one is carried by how calmly he underplays.
Nobody is a short, hard-edged appearance in a very violent film, and Tiny Pretty Things is the soapiest thing here, worth it only if you already like the genre.