1983 - 2001
Born in Mauritania & raised in Ethiopia...
2001 - 2006
Moved to Holland, began stand-up career, got a BA in Theater and won the biggest national comedy competition...
2007 - 2011
After successful TV shows and comedy tours around Holland, Asia & Africa, moved to LA...
2011 - present
On a hit HBO Max comedy, starred in an NBC sitcom, featured in several movies, TV shows and major video games...
About
Samba Schutte is a Dutch-Mauritanian actor, comedian and writer who was born in the Sahara Desert and grew up in Ethiopia until the age of 18. He starred in two seasons of the hit HBO Max pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death alongside Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby. He starred as the first Ethiopian character on an American sitcom - Hakim - on NBC's Sunnyside, alongside Kal Penn and executive produced by Michael Schur (The Good Place, The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks & Rec). Schutte is also known for the award-winning Netflix film The Tiger Hunter, having written for acclaimed video game Battlefield V, as well as performing for award-winning games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and more.
Samba speaks 4 languages: English, French, Dutch and Amharic (Ethiopian). He got his BA in Theater at the Utrecht School of the Arts in Holland. In 2006 he won the Jury & Audience Awards at the Leids Cabaret Festival, Holland's biggest national comedy competition. What followed were 3 comedy specials (Kun Min Woni An, Hakili Jambar and Je Maintiendrai) with successful tours throughout Europe, Asia and Africa.
He was also a writer and correspondent for the Dutch version of "The Daily Show" called De nieuwste show for 2 seasons. Residing in Los Angeles, Samba continues to perform stand-up comedy next to his acting, writing, voice-over and motion capture work.
Samba's two Dutch comedy specials Hakili Jambar and Je Maintiendrai can be rented on Theater Encore!