Abubakar Salim (born 7 January 1993) is a British actor. For his work on Assassin's Creed Origins, he was nominated for a British Academy Games Award and named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit.^[1][2] On television, he is known for his roles in the Sky One series Jamestown (2018–2019) and the HBO Max series Raised by Wolves (2020–2022). He is also the founder and CEO of the video game development studio called Surgent Studios.

Born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, Salim is a first-generation Briton of Kenyan descent. His father was a software engineer for Xerox, and his mother a carer. He began his acting career at age 16 when he joined the National Youth Theatre after his first audition. He subsequently received a scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA),^[3] graduating in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting.

Salim made his professional stage debut as Osric in Prince of Denmark at the National Theatre in 2010.^[4] This was followed in 2011 by his television debut in a series 2 episode of the ITV legal serial The Jury.

Upon graduating from LAMDA in 2014, Salim had small roles in the Fox limited series 24: Live Another Day and the Canal+ comedy-drama Spotless. He returned to the stage in 2015 with roles in Sense of an Ending at Theatre503^[5] and Teddy Ferrara at the Donmar Warehouse.^[6] In 2016, he went on the Cheek by Jowl tour of The Winter's Tale^[7] and appeared in Labyrinth at Hampstead Theatre.^[8][9]

In 2017, Salim voiced Bayek in the video game Assassin's Creed Origins,^[10] for which he earned a British Academy Games Award nomination.^[3]

In 2020, Salim started his own video game development studio called Silver Rain Games (later renamed to Surgent Studios), as the founder and CEO.^[11] A self-described fan of video games, Salim noted that his work for Assassin's Creed Origins gave him a better insight into the development process for video games, which eventually inspired him to pursue a career in video game development and establish his own studio.^[12] The studio's debut project, a 2D side-scrolling platform game, titled Tales of Kenzera: Zau, was released by EA Originals in April 2024.^[13]

In 2018, Salim landed his first major television role when he joined the cast of the Sky One historical drama Jamestown for its second series as Pedro.^[10] He also appeared in the BBC One drama Informer and the third series of Fortitude on Sky Atlantic. From 2020 to 2022, Salim starred as Father in the HBO Max science fiction series Raised by Wolves.^[14][10]

In 2023, it was announced that Salim had been cast as Alyn of Hull in the second season of House of the Dragon.^[15]