Israel Atias

Atias has said that he grew up in a home that respected Jewish tradition, holidays, Shabbat, and kiddush, while allowing a degree of openness. As a teenager, he recalled, his family sometimes watched television on Shabbat, and he did not observe the day then.[1]

He said he was born with a hole in one of the heart’s chambers that did not close on its own, and underwent open-heart surgery at age four. He remained under medical monitoring from infancy until age 18. At 15, a check required to continue with a Wingate football team found that his heart rate did not rise above 90; because no one would take medical responsibility, he left the team. He said he was not barred from recreational, nonprofessional sport.[1]

Sport continued to feature in his life. Atias said he had played football, basketball, and tennis, danced, and swum; at the time of a 2022 interview, he went to the gym three times a week, played tennis weekly, and practiced mixed martial arts.[1]

Atias began taking steps toward acting at a young age, traveling by bus from Yavne to Tel Aviv and walking between talent agencies to ask for meetings. He recalled visiting about four agencies and identified Roberto as his first agent.[6] He later studied at The Way acting school and received a small part in Ptzuyim BaRosh.[4]

He said he began acting in small roles in 2008. In 2009, aged 22, he auditioned to host on Israel’s Children’s Channel but was not selected. During the live audition, the teleprompter fell, and he felt that his performance went badly. He then took a break of more than a year from acting and earned money through temporary work, including customer service for HOT and brief jobs in a Yavne clothing shop and hospitality. He also recalled sorting bottles before his military service.[7]

Atias’s breakthrough came with his role as Evyatar Zaguri in Zaguri Imperia, which brought him wider recognition in 2014. He later said he worried the role would confine him to similar characters. After the series paused, he turned down auditions and offers in that mold; he described a period of about two years without work as a choice. Playing Meir Rafael Sabag in Shababnikim subsequently opened opportunities for characters unlike Evyatar.[2]

In Shababnikim, also known as The New Black, Atias plays Meir Sabag, one of four students at a Jerusalem yeshiva. The comedy-drama follows the young men as they consider marriage, work, and the paths they will pursue as religious Jews, in a story about the intersection of religious life and modern urbanity. Meir’s love interest is Ruth Gottleib, played by Shelly Ben-Yosef.[8] In the second season, the young men are expelled from yeshiva and try activities that include entrepreneurship and a high-tech training program before establishing a yeshiva of their own. Meir is presented as a Mizrahi man from a modest family.[3]

Atias and fellow Shababnikim actors Daniel Gad and Omer Perlman traveled to Madrid in March 2018 to film a HOT commercial with soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo. Atias called the filming “a moving and unforgettable experience” and described Ronaldo as courteous and professional.[9]

His other screen work includes Jaffa Stories, in which he plays Laughing Samson, a character in a film set among a Jaffa crime gang and adapted from Menahem Talmi’s books. The plot puts Samson in the sights of a woman described as a “black widow type,” prompting his friends to bet on how long he will live.[4] Atias was also among the cast of Running on Sand, an Ophir-nominated comedy-drama about an Eritrean asylum seeker who is unwittingly recruited by a struggling Netanya soccer team while trying to escape deportation from Israel.[10]

In the four-episode series Red Alert, known in Hebrew as Or Rishon (“First Light”), Atias plays Kobi, a counter-terrorism officer based in Ofakim who joins efforts to defend his neighbors during the October 7 attack. The series dramatizes five true stories, with some of their storylines converging.[5] For the role, Atias said he met the real undercover combatant on whom the character was based, watched videos, and heard accounts of his experiences. He also described filming in the Gaza border region and later linked his exhaustion and sense of emptiness during production to his immersion in the combatant’s experiences.[2]

A 2022 profile described Atias as an actor in television, film, and theater, and also noted his roles in HaYoreshet and the musical Mary Lou. At the time, he presented for Mania Jeans and Edge and gave talks about bringing secular and religious Israelis closer together and about the power of words.[1] He said he gained nine kilograms for HaYoreshet and stopped training while preparing for Shababnikim, losing six kilograms.[1]

By 2026, Atias’s career had expanded from television roles to high-profile public and commercial work. He was selected to host the 2026 Israel Prize ceremony and joined Castro’s presenter roster. He also returned to Zaguri Imperia after its decade-long hiatus and described Shababnikim and Or Rishon as roles that broadened the kinds of characters he could play.[2]

Atias said he returned to observing Shabbat at age 22 and came to regard it as time set aside for his family and a break from his phone. He also said he goes to a mikveh on Fridays and studies works by Rabbi Nachman. Describing the place of Shabbat in his life, he said, “When people ask me if I observe Shabbat, I say that it is Shabbat that protects me.”[1]

Atias is married to Naomi, who works in the technology sector, and they have two children. He said their first child, Ray Chaim, was born in April 2021 after more than five years of fertility treatment; the couple had considered surrogacy. He described a later pregnancy as unexpected after doctors had anticipated a longer wait.[2]

In discussing Evyatar Zaguri, Atias rejected the use of the Hebrew label “ערס,” which he described as general and racially connoted. Rather than treating the character as a stereotype, he characterized him as “a guy from the periphery who is trying to break through” and said his performance focused on the character’s details, pain, and longing.[4]

The timing of Or Rishon, which concerns events connected to the October 7 attacks and the war, drew objections from bereaved families while the war was ongoing. Atias said he understood arguments on both sides while also seeing importance in the series and its account of events.[2]