Background and career
Tamer Hassan (born 18 March 1968) is a British actor best known for his gritty portrayals of tough guys, gangsters, and enforcers in both British independent cinema and major Hollywood productions. He rose to prominence with leading roles in cult British crime films such as The Football Factory (2004) and The Business (2005), both co-starring Danny Dyer, whom he would go on to collaborate with in a total of six feature films. Hassan has also appeared in international projects across a wide array of action and horror films. These include starring alongside Jet Li in Unleashed (2005), playing the antagonist Rahood opposite Wesley Snipes in 7 Seconds (2005), and portraying the convict leader Chavez in the slasher sequel Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead (2009). His other major credits include Christopher Nolan's superhero film Batman Begins (2005), a recurring role as a Dothraki warrior in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones (2016), and the portrayal of Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca in the historical television docudrama Hannibal v Rome (2005).
Hassan was born and brought up in New Cross, London into a Turkish Cypriot family. Hassan first started working on market stalls at an early age and started boxing at the age of 10. He began an amateur boxing career at the age of 17 where he won two British titles. Having sustained an injury in amateur boxing, he turned to running his own nightclubs and restaurants.
Hassan started acting in television before his role in The Calcium Kid. He was cast as the leader of a fictional football firm in The Football Factory, alongside Danny Dyer and Frank Harper. The film's director Nick Love subsequently cast him in the primary supporting role for The Business. Hassan has had roles in films including The Ferryman, Batman Begins, Cass, Eastern Promises, and Clash of the Titans, in which he portrayed Ares, the ancient Greek god of war. In 2011, he played "The Boss", a shady police officer, in the British film noir Jack Falls. He played "Chavez" in Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead. In 2016 he joined the HBO series Game of Thrones in Season 6 as Khal Forzo.
Hassan is married and has two children: a son who is a professional football player, and a daughter, Belle, who appeared in the fifth series of Love Island in 2019 and the third series of Love Island All Stars in 2026. He is a director of Nasdaq-listed company Lottery.com Inc. He is also a fan of Millwall.
