Yehuda Levi

Levi was born in Petah Tikva on June 29, 1979.[1] His family lived in South Africa during his childhood before returning to Israel.[5] He recalled that their departure was so abrupt that they left within 36 hours, without his having an opportunity to say goodbye to friends he had known for years.[5] Although he remembered being welcomed at middle school in Israel, he said the experience of being uprooted left him with a lasting sense of being an outsider.[5]

He began performing with the Tel Aviv youth troupe HaShchenim shel Chich, or “Chich’s Neighbors,” alongside Yael Bar-Zohar, with whom he became romantically involved.[1] His early performing experience also included Tel Aviv’s youth choir and Hanukkah productions such as A Song Is Born.[6]

Bar-Zohar’s casting in the soap opera Ramat Aviv Gimel in 1995 helped Levi obtain a small part in the series, opening the way to further television work.[1] He subsequently starred in the telenovelas L’Chayei Ha’Ahava (2001) and Ahava Me’ever L’Pina (2003), roles that helped establish him as a teen idol.[1]

In Eytan Fox’s Yossi & Jagger (2002), Levi played an Israel Defense Forces officer involved in a romantic relationship with another officer.[1] His character’s nickname, Jagger, reflected his fellow soldiers’ view of him as a rock star.[2] His other early screen credits included the television drama Venus Sign and the film Schwartz Dynasty.[6] In 2007, he starred in the crime drama The Arbitrator (HaBorer), extending his dramatic work alongside his telenovela career.[1]

In the HOT series HaAlufa, Levi played Saar Padida, a charismatic, self-assured footballer.[3] Shirley Mushiof, who worked on the series, came to know him during its production and began writing scenes for him as himself rather than as Padida.[3] She later explained the contrast she perceived between his public image and private personality with the comparison: “They think he’s a macho, golden boy, Bruce Willis, and actually he’s Woody Allen—a sensitive, neurotic hypochondriac.”[3]

That relationship led to Ish Hashuv Meod (A Very Important Man), a HOT drama created by Mushiof that premiered in 2014 and starred Levi as a version of himself.[3] Drawing on conversations between the actor and creator, the series explored fame, public scrutiny, and a famous actor’s desire for a more ordinary, anonymous life.[3] Levi said he was initially uncomfortable with a character bearing his own name and feared that the project would damage the public image he had maintained.[3] A second season followed the character’s attempt to work in the American entertainment industry.[3]

Levi later starred as Rabbi Nathan in Fire Dance, filmmaker Rama Burshtein-Shai’s first television series.[4] The eight-part drama, produced by Kuma Studios and Yes TV, also featured Noa Koler and newcomer Mia Iwryn.[4] Set in a closed Hasidic community in northern Israel, it presents Nathan as the rabbi’s eldest son and expected successor, whose past complicates his acceptance by the community.[7] After his father’s death, he competes with his brother to succeed him.[2][7]

The story also follows Faigie, an 18-year-old from a troubled home who becomes dangerously close to the married Nathan.[4] After a suicide attempt, she begins helping in his home and falls in love with him.[2] Levi’s performance earned the Best Actor award at the 2022 Series Mania competition in Lille, whose winners were announced on March 25.[4]

Levi also appeared in an early episode of Shababnikim, in a scene set in a fictional Tel Aviv Brooks Brothers store.[8] In her discussion of the sitcom, Sarah Rindner highlights his character’s admiration for black-hat style and his declaration that, if he ever became religious, that would be the reason.[8] The scene includes his praise of the style of men in Brooklyn and Jerusalem: “Circle the whole Tel Aviv and you will not find a single person who has this level of class.”[8]

In East Side, Levi played a real-estate agent in East Jerusalem.[5] Discussing the role in 2023, he said he understood the series chiefly through its relationships, particularly the question of how far a father would go for his daughter, rather than through politics alone.[5] He learned Arabic for the part despite having no prior knowledge of the language.[5]

In the 2023 Keshet drama Third Body, Levi starred opposite Rotem Sela as Iddo, one half of a longtime couple who turn to surrogacy after a decade of marriage and fertility treatments.[9] The role presented him as a reserved, devoted husband rather than a conventional heartthrob.[9] He said he joined Third Person (BeGuf Shlishi) only two weeks before filming, after director Shai Kapon invited him into the ensemble.[5]

His security-thriller roles included the head of the Shin Bet in the Keshet drama The Head, whose story follows a month of personal and professional crises.[9] In Trust No One, he played a character presented as the youngest Shin Bet head in history.[10] That series centers on a cyberattack against the agency that endangers a teenage agent in Gaza spying on her Hamas-leader father and turns people close to the agency chief into suspects.[10] His additional credits include A Body That Works and the film The Wonders.[10]

In The Escape, Levi played Carmeli, a Mossad agent whose opening storyline involves rescuing an Israeli arrested on drug charges from a hospital in Colombia, while hinting at a complicated family history in Israel.[11] In an October 2026 interview, he described the character as a former senior security official recruited for a dangerous rescue operation.[12] The series was filmed abroad before the birth of his daughter, Naya, and Levi said becoming a father had changed his understanding of the story.[12] Reflecting on its rescue premise, he said he believed he would do anything to save his daughter if she were in danger.[12]

Ish Hashuv Meod marked a change in Levi’s screen image: he said the series broke his typecasting as a telenovela actor and helped audiences recognize his commitment to acting.[3] The production won six Israeli Academy of Television statuettes, including the drama-series award, acting awards for Levi and Alma Dishi, and awards for writing, editing, and soundtrack.[13]

His subsequent Best Actor award at Series Mania for Fire Dance added international festival recognition to his television career.[4] Across these roles, Levi moved beyond the romantic leads that established his teenage following to a fictionalized examination of his own celebrity.[1][3] In Fire Dance, he portrayed a religious leader facing familial and communal pressures.[2][7]