AUSXIP SPARTACUS
NICK TARABAY - ASHUR

A former gladiator, with a bum leg, he is the resident bookie and jack-of-all-trades of the ludus. If a gladiator wants to buy something from the outside world, he goes to Ashur. Ashur can get just about anything for anyone but he doesn’t endear himself. He is the least liked or trusted inhabitant at the ludus and is never far from Batiatus’s ear.

Nick E Tarabay plays former gladiator Ashur in “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” the Starz original action adventure drama series. Ashur, wounded in battle, has become a bookmaker, taking odds on the fights and serving as right hand to the gladiator school’s scheming owner Batiatus (John Hannah).

Tarabay says of Ashur: “He’s definitely a survivor - very calculating, very smart. He found different strength and instead of being a physical fighter, now he fights with his brain.”

Tarabay was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, where his mother enrolled him in art classes and he also became a successful college athlete, playing semi-pro soccer for both Lebanon and Kuwait leagues. He moved to New York, where he soon joined the Terry Schreiber Actors Studio and was cast in several off-Broadway plays. He made his television debut in “Sex and the City” and soon after that he landed his recurring role as the sexy drug dealer Matush in “The Sopranos,” after which he moved to Los Angeles.

After working in episodes of shows such as “CSI: Miami,” “The Unit” and “Moonlight,” he was cast as hot-blooded police lieutenant Axel Finet in the Starz original series “Crash.” He was originally slated for just three episodes of that series but he became a series regular once the network saw his work – the producers loved Axel too much to kill him.

 

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