Sacha Baron Cohen

“Very nice! The Borat mustache that fooled the world.”

86STACH SCORE

✂ Chevron Celebrity Era: 2000s Born 1971

Is this a Legendary Stach?

Stach Stats

Stash Power88

Ruggedness50

Curl Factor12

Legend Status84

Stats are for entertainment purposes. The mustache committee's decisions are final and occasionally arbitrary.

Style: Chevron
Peak Era: 2000s
Born: 1971
Fan Votes: 0 legendary · 0 meh

The Story

About Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Noam Baron Cohen was born in London in 1971 and studied history at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he also performed with the Footlights. British television audiences met him in the late 1990s as Ali G, a clueless wannabe gangsta interviewing real public figures, and Da Ali G Show (2000–2004) introduced his other alter egos, including the Kazakh reporter Borat Sagdiyev.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) was a global phenomenon, earning Baron Cohen a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for its screenplay. The character's gray suit, enthusiastic thumbs-up, and thick dark mustache became instant costume shorthand. He followed it with Brüno (2009), The Dictator (2012), and the sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020).

He has also built a respected straight-acting career, with roles in Sweeney Todd (2007), Hugo (2011), Les Misérables (2012), and The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor as Abbie Hoffman.

The Verdict

Why the Stach Became Iconic

The Borat mustache is one of the few comedy mustaches that is completely real. Baron Cohen grew it for the role and wore it through months of undercover shooting, and it is so essential to the character that the sequel's plot partly revolves around disguising it.

It is a mustache that does the heavy lifting of an entire persona: one look and you know you are about to be very politely insulted. That is elite-level lip work.

On the Record

Appearances

Da Ali G Show (2000–2004)
Borat (2006)
Brüno (2009)
The Dictator (2012)
Les Misérables (2012)
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

Fun Facts

The Borat mustache is real; he grew and maintained it during filming for both Borat films.
He won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Borat (2006).
He studied history at Cambridge and wrote his thesis on the American civil rights movement.
He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020).
He is married to actress Isla Fisher, with whom he has three children.