Ahmed Best (born August 19, 1973) is an American actor, comedian and musician. He is known for providing the voice and motion capture for the character Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars franchise.
Best likewise collaborated with director George Lucas in three films and seven episodes of the animated show Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He won the Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production for portraying Jar Jar Binks in Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II. He also voices Roux, a powerful mythical being in the video game South of Midnight.
Early life
Ahmed Best was born in New York City on August 19, 1973. Born in Roosevelt Hospital, he lived the majority of his formative years in the Soundview section of the Bronx. Best and his family moved to Maplewood, New Jersey in 1984. He attended Columbia High School, graduating in 1991. He then studied percussion at the Manhattan School of Music.
Career
1994–1995: Early work
In 1994, Best joined the acid jazz group the Jazzhole and was a member for two years. He co-wrote and co-produced three albums for the group, including The Jazzhole, And the Feeling Goes Around, and The Beat is the Bomb. In 1995, he co-wrote and co-produced Escape by Bill Evans.
In 1995, he joined Stomp. He toured with the cast throughout the US and Europe. This evoked support from fans and some of the cast including Frank Oz and Star Wars: The Last Jedi film director, Rian Johnson. Jake Lloyd who also faced criticism over his performance also praised Best for his humour saying, "He is one of the coolest guys that I've ever met." Daniels defended Best praising him for his intelligence and energy and saying that the criticism he faced "was beyond cruel."
In 2019, as part of the 20th anniversary, Best cited the audience for which The Phantom Menace was aimed reaching adulthood and their perspective on the film as some of the reasons for the reappraisal of the prequel trilogy. He said, "the prequels, that's theirs, and they defend the prequels. So I see the same thing. I see the resurgence of The Phantom Menace." Initially, Best was hesitant about attending Star Wars Celebration Chicago in 2019 due to the criticism and spending "most of [his] time defending" the film and his character. Lucas named Jar Jar as his favourite character and praised Best, saying, "Ahmed, you did a fantastic job. It was very, very hard." He also appeared in the second season of the documentary television series Light & Magic and talked about the significance of his character (being Lucasfilm's first CGI character), the experience making The Phantom Menace, as well as the criticism he faced following the film's release.