Hassani Shapi

Shapi's earliest traceable screen work places him in Italian television in the mid-1990s, with a role in *Il maresciallo Rocca* — a long-running Italian drama that aired across multiple seasons, with his involvement spanning 1996 and 2005 (IMDb). Italian cinema and TV would remain a throughline in his career even as he took on international work. It's a path that doesn't get talked about much: the cohort of African-born actors who found consistent work in continental European productions, often invisible to English-language entertainment press. Then came 1999. Two major franchise films in a single year — *Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace*, where Shapi portrayed Jedi Council member Eeth Koth, and the Pierce Brosnan Bond entry *The World Is Not Enough* — put him in front of genuinely global audiences (Wikipedia, IMDb). The Eeth Koth role, while not a leading part, carried real cultural staying power; the character appears in the Jedi Council scenes and has been documented extensively in Star Wars reference materials, including Wookieepedia, which maintains a dedicated entry on Shapi's portrayal. The 2000s saw him continue working across both sides of the Atlantic. *Murder Unveiled* (2005) and *Irina Palm* (2007) kept him active in European productions, while the decision to move to the United States opened up American television — *Law & Order* in 2010 being the most prominent example (IMDb). His later Italian work, including *Make a Fake* (2011) and *Scappo a casa* (2019), suggests he never fully abandoned the European market that had supported much of his earlier career. A long run. Over twenty years of consistent screen work, across at least three countries' film industries.