Gabi Amrani is a film, television, and theatre actor. Amrani took his first creative steps in the IDF when he joined the sophomore year of military musical ensemble, Lehakat Hanachal (The Nachal Group) along with the likes of Uri Zohar, Chaim Topol, and Avraham Heffner where he made a name for himself, singing the lead on the hit Israeli folk song, He Never Knew her Name (‘hu lo yada et shma’). On completing his military service, he headed to the US where he studied theatre under Hebert Berghof and Uta Hagen. When he returned to Israel in the mid-1960s, he soon found work in the local film and theatre scene. Of his countless theatre roles are three plays by Hanoch Levin – The Whore from Ohio; Requiem; and Whiners – all of which were performed at the Cameri Theatre. In 2000, Amrani was named the laureate of an Ophir Lifetime Achievement Award.
Highlights of his film credits include: Ervinka (Ephraim Kishon, 1967), Fish, Football and Girls (Uri Zohar, 1968), The Big Dig (Ephraim Kishon, 1969), Lupo! (Menahem Golan, 1970), The Policeman (Ephraim Kishon, 1971), Ariana (George Obadiah, 1971), Tzanani Family (Boaz Davidson, 1976), Save the Lifeguard (Uri Zohar, 1977), Operation Thunderbolt (Menahem Golan, 1977), Dead End Street (Yaky Yosha, 1982), Melech LeYom Ehad (‘king for a day’) (Assi Dayan, 1982), Zohar (Eran Riklis, 1993), Gett (Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, 2014), and Love in Suspenders (Jorge Yohanan Weller, 2019). In television, Amrani was a series regular on the Israeli version of Sesame Street and on hit TV series, Asfur and Dumb.
