Mahershala Ali has pretty good chance of winning an Oscar later this month for his work in Moonlight.
His wife, Amatus Sami-Karim, also happens to be pregnant and is expected to be giving birth any day now.
If Ali does go home with coveted gold statuette, any chance they'll be naming the baby Oscar?!
"Maybe a middle name," Ali joked with me at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. "You know, if it is a girl, it could be Oscaria."
Ali admitted that it's been "nuts" juggling award season, his work on Luke Cage and being on the verge of becoming a first-time dad. " I am just hoping that I am still on my feet, come February 27," he said, adding, "The baby better be here beforehand, but yeah, sleep is done. I think this has been like the warm up for being tired for the next 10 years of my life."
In addition to the Oscar nom, Ali is nominated for a BAFTA. He won best supporting actor for Moonlight at the Critics' Choice Awards as well as the same at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
In his SAG Awards acceptance speech last night, Ali was on the verge of tears as he talked about the importance of treating each other well to have any chance at healing our divisions. "My mother is an ordained minister. I'm a Muslim. She didn't do back flips when I called her to tell her I converted 17 years ago," he said. "I tell you now, we put things to side. And I'm able to see her—she's able to see me. We love each other. That love has grown. And that [other] stuff is minutiae."