User:Momo Casablanca

Born in Casablanca, Morocco [North-Africa] and raised in France. Momo Casablanca considers himself Moroccan, French and African. Since becoming an American Citizen, he also considers himself African-American. He has credits in television and theatre as well as films. Momo Casablanca is the second of eight children with five brothers and two sisters. He was born on a very special day called: [Labor Day] it was a time of incredible conflict and contrast. It was also the year when both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, the year Lyndon B. Johnson succumbed to the cultural clashes over Vietnam and gave up the presidency, and the year of the police riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But for Momo's parents it was a time to give birth. His Parents were people of will and determination, and so they passed on a strong nomadic foundation that served him well. His father Ibrahim Elmir was the local shepherd in the drought-stricken border in the African Country Algeria.

Momo Casablanca loves coming from a big family and was the entertainer of the bunch since he could walk and talk. The boy was in first grade when he decided that he wanted to be somebody special like Elvis Presley, but there was already a French Elvis in the person of Jean-Philippe Smet, known by his stage name [Johnny Halliday]. And so, he went through school being the class clown always getting in trouble for putting on a show. As a boy he was slight for his age but possessed razor sharp mind, indisputable charm, and a tendency toward mischief. He was king of the hill but it wasn't enough. He wanted something more…he offend says that greed is part of the human condition and nobody knows-how greed started but Momo is quick to answer: It' started with [Oliver Twist] when he wanted some more.

Momo may not have been a stellar student, but he was born bookworm, always imagining himself the hero of the stories he was reading. Tales of magic and transformation fascinated him. In those stories success was not a question of luck, culture, wealth, social place or color. Success was yours for the taken, it was yours if your desire was fierce, your heart virtuous and your wits sharp. These were the stories that forged our great national myth that any one can succeed if only he tried hard enough.

And so, Momo was ready to try even if his dad had conflicted feelings about his choice of career. Although his had had run away from home himself as a young man to seek his fortune, he had hoped that Momo would stay in school and make better opportunities for himself, for him people in show-business had a reputation for being wild and immoral no matter how successful they were. He viewed them with disdain but not Momo, he had found his love and validation of the arts from enrolling with Marcel Marceau who taught him writing and performing his own comedy-mime sketches.

After graduating, Momo did a season of stage work with the Master in the annual theatre festival, known as the Festival d'Avignon, as a showcase of the arts and culture of Mime . To further his education in acting he packed away and without telling his parents, he bundled up some clothes, took up his book "Still Life With Woodpecker" by "Tom Robbins" and took a last look at home and walked out the front door.

What could drive Momo to run away from a loving family-if he couldn't be somebody in his own right? So be it! Momo came to Hollywood, where the movie entertainment is America's first national past time after the super bowl with no experience, no money, no connections, hustling for work in the real world. Despite some fine movie roles in front of the camera of some well-respected directors and producers, he formed his production company Elmir Films to develop projects where he will serve as actor and/or producer.