When Edwin Lee Gibson ’12 was cast as Ebraheim in “The Bear,” he was given a one-line description of his character: “A mystery who’s lived 1,000 lives.”

“That’s all Christopher Storer said about him,” Gibson says, quoting the show’s creator. “But that was all I needed. It gave me a lot of space to play.”

These days, viewers know Ebraheim as the stoic East African war veteran who runs the takeout sandwich window. He is a long-time employee of “The Bear,” a Chicago restaurant undergoing a transformation. “With as few lines as Ebra has, I wanted to be able to weight those lines and give people a sense of intrigue about him,” he says. “My goal is for people to see this mystery and really wonder who he is.”

One thing that’s not a mystery? The incredible success of the show, which has become a global phenomenon. It recently garnered 23 Emmy nominations, including ‘Best Comedy Series.’  The show was also named Television Program of the Year for two years by the American Film Institute, and received accolades from the Golden Globes Awards, the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards, the Peabody Awards, and the Critics Choice Awards, among others.

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