Youssef Kerkour (born 9 June 1978) is a Moroccan-British actor. He is best known for portraying Syrian refugee Sami in the comedy-drama series Home (2019–2020), for which he was nominated at the 2020 British Academy Television Awards, and Steely Pate in the fantasy drama series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2026).
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Early life and education
Kerkour grew up in Rabat, Morocco. His father was a Moroccan mathematics professor and his mother an English schoolteacher; they had met in France in the 1960s and moved together to Morocco. As a child, Kerkour loved to sing and dance, and idolised Bruce Lee after his father took him to a screening of the film Enter the Dragon. In his early teens, Kerkour took a school trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, England, the home town of William Shakespeare, and attended a production of Henry V; he credits this experience with inspiring his love of acting.
Kerkour moved to the United States to study psychology at Bard College, but spent much of his time taking dance and acting classes instead. He began pursuing an acting career at the encouragement of a university professor.
