Farouk Valley-Omar

Farouk Valley-Omar (1945-) is an actor, director and teacher.

Biography

Born Farhuq Ismael Valley-Omar in Worcester in the Western Cape in 1945, he matriculated at an early age and went on to train as a teacher at the Hewat College in Athlone. His teaching career started as an English teacher at the Esselenpark High School in Worcester.

In 1963 he saw a brilliant performance by South African performer Bill Curry in Archibald McLeish's J.B.at the Little Theatre in Cape Town, and that first inspired him to enter the theatre industry. As a result of this he registered for a teacher's diploma in drama at the University of Cape Town in 1968, the only person of colour in the course at the time. This was followed by a BA (Drama) degree at the same University and later a B.Ed degree from the University of the Western Cape.

Between 1970 and 1975 he was an itinerant speech and drama teacher for Battiswood Teacher's Training College in Wynberg and the Wesley Teacher's Training College in Salt River, and in 1976 he was seconded as a full-time speech and drama teacher to the Bellville Education College , where he worked for 18 years.

In 1983 he completed a directing course with the (now defunct) British Theatre Association in London.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

As an actor he appeared in plays like The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969); Skyf (1984 and 1998); The Boys Next Door (1986); Fiela se Kind (1986); Die Asjaspassie (1987); District Six – The Musical (1988); Just Like Home (as Gupta, 1990); Fiela's Child (1999), Salaam Stories (2004); Toorberg, Die Verminktes, Antjie Somers, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Maynardville)As You Like It (Maynardville 1999); Antjie Somers (2000).

As a stage director his productions have included Die Verminktes (), Macbeth (), Oklahoma! (); Bugsy Malone (The Eoan Group, Joseph Stone Theatre), Dialogue With a Dying Man(1987);

Film roles have included appearances in Mandela and De Klerk (TV movie, 1997); 10 000 BC (BBC TV); Raised by Wolves (); Labyrinth (); and a large number of other international movies and TV series.

Local film and TV roles include productions like Die Allemans (1991); Cape of Good Hope (2004); A Boy Called Twist (2004); Geraldina 2 (2007); Jamillah and Aladdin (2015); Die Spreeus (2019); Bhai's Café (2019) and The Flood (2025).

He was on the first steering committee of the Cape Town Theatre Laboratory, 1998