Mark Ivanir

Ivanir was born in Chernovtsi (now Chernivtsi), Ukrainian SSR, on September 6, 1968. His family emigrated to Israel in 1972. His father, Alexander "Sasha", was an English teacher, and his mother, Malka, a German teacher. His maternal grandfather, Meshulem Surkis, was a Yiddish writer, journalist, actor, and theatre critic, who was a well known activist in the Yiddish cultural world.

His first major film role was in Steven Spielberg's 1993 Oscar-winning epic Schindler's List. He worked with Spielberg twice thereafter, first for a cameo appearance in The Terminal, then again for The Adventures of Tintin. Ivanir held a pivotal role in Robert De Niro's 2006 film, The Good Shepherd, for which he won the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, later landing a role in Barry Levinson's What Just Happened, this time acting alongside De Niro.

In 2011, he appeared in Universal's Johnny English Reborn, Universal's Big Miracle and 360.

His biggest part to date was on the critically acclaimed A Late Quartet, released from RKO pictures in the United States, in fall 2012. The film was voted as one of the New York Daily News 10 top films of the year. Ivanir played Daniel Lerner, the first violin of the string quartet, whose other members are played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken.

Ivanir has had over 60 guest star and guest lead roles on television shows such as 24, Monk, CSI: NY, Law & Order, Fringe, CSI: Miami, Nikita and Royal Pains.

In 2016 Ivanir had a recurring role on Homeland as Russian intelligence agent Ivan Krupin. The season was nominated for the SAG Awards and for the Emmy’s.

In 2017, he played a Holocaust survivor in the critically acclaimed German-language film “Bye Bye Germany” and recurred on Amazon’s “Transparent”. As of August 2019, Amazon Prime is airing worldwide the Israeli hit show “The Beauty and the Baker”, with Ivanir playing the part of Zvika Granot.

In 2018, he co-starred in the film Entebbe, directed by José Padilha, the creator of Narcos, and Bill Hader's HBO comedy Barry, in which he recurs as three Chechen brothers. He appeared in The Red Sea Diving Resort, as the head of the Mossad, alongside Sir Ben Kingsley, Chris Evans and Greg Kinnear.

• Mark Ivanir on IMDb
• "Mark Ivanir Lives for Shady Characters". The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles.