Biography
From the time of his onscreen debut in the early '90s, Ari Cohen came to specialize in portrayals of everymen, frequently (though not always) nice guy figures with warm and sincere personas; throughout his career, Cohen maintained a particularly strong presence in telemovies. He began his acting tenure on an unusual and uncharacteristic note, with a turn in Canadian avant-garde filmmaker
Guy Maddin's 1990
Archangel, then essayed a portrayal of
Saturday Night Live progenitor
Lorne Michaels in the telemovie It's Always Something: The Gilda Radner Story (2002), and joined
Jason Alexander for the heartwarming holiday prime-time movie
The Man Who Saved Christmas (2002). In 2007, Cohen played the emotionally abusive and apathetic father of a troubled young woman (
Ellen Page) in Bruce McDonald's critically acclaimed drama
The Tracey Fragments. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide