Oshri Cohen

Cohen was born in 1984.[1] Accounts differ on when he began acting: a 2003 biography says he started at age 10 in the television series Gingy, while a later profile says he was cast in the series at age 12 in 1996.[7][8]

As a child performer, Cohen appeared in the play Letters to Noa and the children’s production The Jungle Book, and had guest roles in Yarkon District and Not Necessarily.[7] Another profile says that in 1996 he appeared in The Jungle Book as Tom Avni’s understudy.[8] Later television credits include Love Around the Corner, Johnny and the Knights of the Galilee, and Pamt’a.[8]

Cohen gained wide notice at 19 for playing the “dream baker” in Shimi Zarchin’s film The Stars of Shlomi.[4] He also appeared in the 2003 comedy Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi, also titled Ha'Kohavim Shel Shlomi; its reference entry lists him among the cast but does not identify his character.[9] His other film credits include Lebanon, Lost Islands, Shoshana, Center Forward—also rendered as Shoshana, Central—and Working Woman.[8][10]

One of Cohen’s most prominent roles was Liraz in Cedar’s Beaufort. Set in 2000, shortly before Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, the film follows soldiers stationed at the Beaufort fortress in southern Lebanon. Cohen played Liraz, the 22-year-old commander of the outpost; the film was described as fiction based on soldiers’ true stories rather than a docudrama.[11][3] Liraz tells visiting officers, “If we're retreating, let's go. And if we're staying, let us do our job.”[3]

The film analysis notes that Ziv’s uncle had been killed at Beaufort 18 years before the film’s setting, fighting over the same land.[11] Liraz is portrayed as believing in the justice of Israel’s cause and the judgment of military and political leaders, in contrast with Ziv’s doubts about the purpose of their presence. His trust in his superiors is ultimately self-defeating, while his motivations remain difficult to understand; the analysis calls his “occasionally heroic, occasionally foolish obstinacy” insufficiently explained.[11]

A Jerusalem Post review said Cohen carried much of the performance’s weight. It praised the cast overall while observing that Cohen sometimes struggled in quieter scenes to convey the role’s full range before recovering quickly.[3] He was nominated for Best Actor for Beaufort at the 2007 Ophir Awards but did not win; the award went to Sasson Gabai for The Band’s Visit.[12][4] Beaufort received awards in technical categories, while The Band’s Visit took the top prizes for screenplay, directing, and Best Picture.[12]

Cohen’s other screen roles have included Motti in Hafsakat Esh, released in English as Haven. Set during the Second Lebanon War, the film follows Motti and his pregnant wife Keren as they seek shelter from rocket attacks in a Tel Aviv home. Motti is depicted as an unemployed, uncouth young man dependent on his hosts who tries to reform himself through religious practice, believing it will cleanse him before his child is born.[13]

In the comedy Shoshana, Center Forward, Cohen played Ami Shoshan, a Jerusalem soccer player who falls for a woman played by Gal Gadot and is threatened by a gangster. Shoshan announces at a press conference that he is gay as a means of saving himself; the film uses the comic premise to engage with Israeli society and was described as part of the locally recognizable “bourekas” genre.[14] A 2024 review identified Cohen as Hen in the series Save the Date and characterized his past work as including many comic roles and performances as “hot but relatable guys.”[15]

His television work has included Our Song, New York, and Survivor.[4][10] Later international and Israeli roles included Homeland, McMafia, and The Rumor.[1] In The Rumor, he played Moshe Elhayani, a police investigator in Jerusalem.[1] In the 2023 action thriller The Engineer, he played a Shin Bet agent pursuing Hamas terrorist bomb maker Yehiyah Ayyash; the film centers on the manhunt and was filmed entirely in Israel.[16]

Cohen has also worked in theater. A 2007 profile reported that he won a theater award for promising actor of the year for his role in Reshef Levy’s play The Indian Patient.[4] Other stage credits include All Life Before Him and the production Billy Elliot.[5][10]

Alongside acting, Cohen pursued filmmaking. In 2019 he went to Los Angeles to study filmmaking after a painful breakup and made a short film called Longing. During that stay, his car was broken into and his computer, camera, scripts, and other belongings were stolen; he then took a month-long road trip across the United States with two friends.[10] A 2020 profile said he had studied filmmaking in Los Angeles for a year and had written In the Middle of Nowhere, which he planned to shoot and direct for the first time. The production was postponed during the COVID-19 crisis.[5]

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Cohen made Spring Blossoming of the Town, a short film described as a visual, lyrical poem about Tel Aviv that was accepted to the Wildsound film festival and received praise.[5] With longtime friend Ronen Menipaz, he established the content company Haven, which Cohen described as a refuge for material unlikely to find a place in television or mainstream cinema.[5]

Haven’s Project OUT consists of short films about an ordinary person confronting government and technology. In New Pizza, a man tries to order food while technology and official systems intrude; Dark Pasta imagines governments limiting household energy use because an asteroid is approaching. Cohen said the films used cinema to raise questions about privacy and individual freedom.[5] A later interview also names Tired Ice Cream in the series and reports that Cohen wrote and directed the films. It says the series attracted international attention and that Cohen reported winning 16 awards at festivals worldwide, without listing most of the awards or festivals.[6]

Cohen also opened a production company and made the personal film Grandpa Masoud, which was reported to have succeeded at festivals around the world. In the Middle of Nowhere, starring Dror Keren and Dar Zuzovsky, subsequently toured bars around Israel.[8] In 2026, Cohen said he had moved to California with his family to pursue Hollywood work and was teaching acting in Los Angeles. He also filmed and produced the psychological thriller OROBOROS with Eric Roberts, founded Ellessence Studios with partners after making the film, and said the company had ten projects lined up.[1]

Cohen’s public interests have also included sport. In 2009 he was reported to be a Tel Aviv beachgoer who enjoyed surfing and other water sports, and to have joined Israel’s team at a FussVolley championship in Holland. He discovered the combination of volleyball and football after watching Brazilian tourists play on a beach, asked them to teach him the rules, and became so absorbed in the sport that he set aside his other athletic pursuits.[17]

Cohen’s career has moved between prominent Israeli film and television roles and independent creative work behind the camera. His performance as Liraz in Beaufort is especially prominent: the film drew attention to his acting, and he received an Ophir Award nomination for the role.[3][4] His subsequent work as a writer, director, and producer—including Project OUT and projects developed through Haven—reflects his stated interest in creating substantial work beyond acting.[5][6] His move to California and establishment of Ellessence Studios extended that work into Hollywood production.[1]

Cohen’s military-service history became a public subject of dispute around the release of Beaufort. A 2007 interview records his account that he contacted the Israel Defense Forces about contributing in some way and was told he would need either to enlist fully or not enlist. He disputed press accounts that the army had offered him minimal service which he refused, and objected to being labeled a draft evader; the interview does not independently establish the circumstances of his service.[4] Separately, a Jerusalem Post report noted controversy over the fact that many of Beaufort’s cast members had not served in the IDF.[12]

In 2025, Cohen’s producer and agent, Amit Mizrahi, said the team received hostile messages before a scheduled Houston performance and requested additional security. After the show, two masked men allegedly struck the windshield of their car and stole bags containing equipment, cash, and unreleased songs. Mizrahi characterized the incident as antisemitic and anti-Israeli; that description is reported as his account, not as an independently established finding.[2]