In the months before the acclaimed drama “The Kite Runner” opened in theaters last weekend, director Marc Forster tried to explain to the film’s star, Khalid Abdalla, that life as he knew it was about to change.

“He keeps telling me, ‘Enjoy your anonymity while you can,’” Khalid told me recently.

The movie, just nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best foreign-language film, is based on the novel of the same name. Khalid plays Amir, a man who returns to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to heal his past after spending two decades in America.

Although he’s been acting professionally since he was 15, much of Khalid’s work had been on the London stage. “The Kite Runner” is just his second film which he shot after completing a role in “United 93.”
The 27-year-old actor divides his time between London, Paris and Cairo but is quick to say “wherever there’s a great job, that’s where I want to be....I want to be part of films that tell extraordinary stories whatever they may be whether they’re comic, tragic, human, horror. That’s what I want to do.”
Khalid was born in Glasgow, Scotland, of Egyptian heritage and honed his acting skills while attending Cambridge University.

He gives much credit to Forster - the director of “Monster’s Ball” and “Finding Neverland” among other films, for helping him transition from stage to screen.

“He’s an extraordinary director,” Khalid said. “You don’t get to work with the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Kate Winslet, Johnny Depp, Emma Thompson, Halle Berry - and the list goes on and on - you don’t get to work with the likes of those people unless you are someone very, very special. He’s an extraordinary sensitive man with a great eye on people and on the world and he’s a technical master of his craft. You feel supported no matter what you’re doing.”