Omer Abbas Salem was born a bright-eyed pup, destined
for a life of sweat, quick-changes, and line-throughs. He
moved to the United States in 2001 and settled into the
sunny, albeit slightly dank, Darien, IL. After four years of
plays and excuses not to join the tennis team, Omer Abbas
drove South to the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
to claim his destiny. Instead of majoring in Acting and
Theater as most logical aspiriing performers do, Omer Abbas
chose to major in English and Journalism, graduating in
2009 with an additional minor in Rhetoric. With extensive
training in Shakespeare (text analysis and reading), Chekhov
(text analysis and reading), Austen, Shaw, Wilde, Beckett,
Moliere, and many more, he has a solid and perhaps better
rooted classical text education. He has since completed a
Master's in Special Education and Child Psychology and is saving the latter to help him talk his future three-year-old daughter out of wearing her Spiderman costume for the thirtieth day in a row. It may have not been a worthy investment.
He moved to Chicago a bright-eyed pup in 2011 and has been grappling with the splendor ever since. He discovered that he could exist off of Chipotle for months and may even serve it with the option of chicken or steak at his wedding. He learned that falling asleep while holding your phone on the CTA is stupid and that wearing bandanas make you look stupid. But most importantly, he learned how viscerally this city bubbles with theater and how much he wants to be a part of it.
He has had the extreme good fortune of working with some of the most supportive ensembles through the Neofuturists, Polarity Ensemble, the Second City, Silk Road Rising, Rasaka Theater, Prologue, Bread and Roses, Bailiwick Chicago, About Face, The New Colony, Prop Theatr, Eclipse Theatre, and Steep Theatre . He appeared in the full length film Finn and the Sea of Noise and the web series Why Don't You Like Me?
Abbas is a 2017/18 Acting Apprentice with the Actors
Theatre of Louisville. His nine months were jam
packed with performance opportunities and he is a
stronger and more flexible actor for it. He understudied
Prior in both Angels in America: Mellenium and
Perestroika (directed by Associate Artistic Director
Meredith McDonough) as well as write his first solo
show. He made his equity and regional theater debut
in Christmas Carol playing Topper and followed it
up with his Humana Festival debut in You Across
From Me directed by Jessica Fisch.
Double Fisting McDonald's Drinks: the Abbas Salem Story...
