Elan Zafir
Actor Reel (2025)
Reviews
"If Burkovskiy supplies the evening’s dazzle and venom, Elan Zafir brings its quiet soul. As Anton, Kon’s loyal dramaturg and conscience, Zafir offers a performance of devastating restraint."
Theatre Scene
Tony Marinelli
"Elan Zafir gives the most moving performance of the evening as Anton, Kon’s dramaturg, who speaks out against the war but stays behind to face the consequences."
"The most impressive juggling act comes from Zafir, who plays both father and son in a confrontation at the altar of young love."
Theatre Mania
Zachary Stewart
"And by the way, Elan Zafir plays Hubert, torn by affection for Arthur, with such exceptional emotionality that he makes a powerful case for this secondary character to be the humane touchstone for the play."
The Washington Post
Peter Marks
The New York Times
Naveen Kumar
"This episode begins with the incarcerated journalist Lucas Goodwin reciting what sounds like a chapter from a forthcoming “Fifty Shades of Grey” spinoff so that his cellmate (Elan Zafir) can, shall we say, enjoy some “me” time."
The New York Times
Jen Chaney
"Zafir’s impassioned portrayal... embodying a dozen characters along the way in whip-smart, breakneck fashion...has devised a show with layers of theatricality that crackle..."
The Washington Post
Roger Caitlin
"There is a raw quality to the emotional and physical relationship of Woman and Man, and Harris and Zafir do a phenomenal job exploring this couple. With each insult, kiss, embrace, pursuit and clash, we see their relationship reach a new level of depth... it's fascinating to watch "
Broadway World
Benjamin Tomchik
"Zafir is an excellent physical comic, his timing is superb, and he absolutely nails it. Quite honestly, he makes the night."
Metro Weekly
Kate Wingfield
"Elan Zafir, always striking to watch, creates a lively connection [with Dykstra] that takes theatrical communion to another level, truly extraordinary. When John tells Hubert to “off” his nephew, they play with looks, innuendo slipped in almost as an aside, and musically “riff” like two great jazz musicians."
DC Theatre Scene
Susan Galbraith
"Zafir’s amusingly flippant and chatty Jeb shows a vulnerable side, to poignant effect."
The Washington Post
Celia Wren
"Yet, in two moving duologues, the superb Zafir and Millonzi (as Eilert and Hedda) drop the Bedlam rowdiness and offer a brief, emotional glimpse of their characters’ damaged hearts"
Off Off Online
Charles Wright
"Eventually Zafir works himself into a frenzy that pulls together elements of everything he has been trying to communicate for almost an hour. It’s spellbinding."
DC Theatre Scene
Allison Daniels
"In the case of Elan Zafir’s biographical one-man show The Unaccompanied Minor, although it’s billed as a comedy, it really isn’t all that funny. And that’s okay, because there’s much more to the 50-minute monologue than laughs."
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Lisa Traiger
"It is tricky to bring this kind of tragic story to the stage, and the well-acted production from the Mart Foundation and Golyak’s Arlekin Players Theater is artistically ambitious."
The New York Times
Elisabeth Vincentelli
"Elan Zafir play(s) this with ferocious abandon. Zafir’s performance is an athletic tour de force."
MD Theatre Guide
Robert Michael Oliver
"Elan Zafir defines obnoxiousness..."
Theatre Mania
Barbara Mackay
"And every time Elan Zafir opens his mouth and says his lines, the audience laughs. It’s a given. He’s that good."
MD Theatre Guide
April Forrer
Elan Zafir (as Jeb) leads the pack – with chiseled chin, quick stealthy moves, and perfect pitch delivery, he could just as easily be spouting dialogue from Mamet before heading out to commit a quick kill.
DC Theatre Scene
Debbie Minter Jackson
"My first impression of Goodwin's prison cellmate, whose name is Gagik, was that he's physically intimidating, covered in tattoos, and bald. You don't want to f*ck with this guy."
Romper
Kylie McConville
"Henry’s other friend Reg, as played by Elan Zafir, has a kind of good-old-boy bonhomie which makes some of his retrograde remarks much more palatable. He displays surprising growth, and Zafir portrays his evolution with enthusiasm."
DC Metro Arts Theatre
Sophia Howes
"But the character who had me actually LOL-ing was The Guide. Played by Elan Zafir, he’s like an awkward Indiana Jones meets J. Peterman from Seinfeld — in the most hilarious way possible."
KidFriendlyDC
Linda Gordon
"Elan Zafir has conjured up theatrical genius that is both modern and relevant and loaded with humorous moments amid a very real dramatic situation."
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Amanda Gunther
"When they reach exquisite gems, like the recitations of Byron by Hannah and her fellow academic Bernard (Elan Zafir), the shivers still come."
Vulture
Sara Holdren
"Graves’ scene with Elan Zafir’s Hubert, in whose care John has placed Arthur, elicits heart-wrenching performances from both actors."
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Ian Thal
Zafir helps him pull it off by delivering a Bernard who seems to fully embody the arrogant excesses of the humanities. He’s nasty, demeaning, vain, and (frustratingly, inexplicably) sexy. We completely understand Hannah’s temptation when it comes to this bedenimed Byron wannabe.
Theatre Mania
Zachary Stewart
Elan Zafir, always striking to watch, creates a lively connection with Dykstra that takes theatrical communion to another level, truly extraordinary. When John tells Hubert to “off” his nephew, they play with looks, innuendo slipped in almost as an aside, and musically “riff” like two great jazz musicians... I found myself on the edge of my seat and watery-eyed watching the extraordinary Graves and Zafir, the desperate, innocent boy and the tormented, conflicted man."
DC Theatre Scene
Susan Galbraith
"Juror No. 10 (Elan Zafir) delivers a wonderfully contemptible, utterly unapologetic performance—as a blue-collar, vitriolic racist."
DC Theatre Scene
Meaghan Hannan Davant
"The entire cast shone over the very intricate text, with special mention to Elan Zafir as Bernard Nightingale, who found a perfect balance to display his character’s unscrupulous ambition and hilarious naïveté."
Stage & Cinema
M. Tornatore
"Hilariously Narcissistic."
Timeout
Regina Robbins
"Judge me if you will, but in this kind of battle I'm nearly always drawn to the bluntest, rudest character, and Zafir's Alan, a workaholic attorney, does not disappoint..."
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jim Higgins
"Elan Zafir gets off some great swagger as the “I don’t care” father who often speaks the hard truth."
Urbban Milwaukee
Dominique Paul Noth
"Racism is definitely in play here – most thunderously articulated in a masterfully vituperative speech by Zafir as Juror Ten."
Maryland Theatre Guide
Brian Bochicchio
"Elan Zafir’s late-in-the-play chillingly delivered diatribe outlines our country’s worst nightmare about racial prejudice and he delivered it with such conviction you could almost feel the return of the nightmarish 30’s and 40’s in Europe and the 50’s here in the US."
The Zebra
Sara Dudley Brown
"Strongest of all is Elan Zafir who plays Everybody’s fair-weather friend. Zafir has fun with Jacobs-Jenkins’ rapid-fire patter and “dude” persona, bringing some of the verve and genuine laughs the piece deserves."
Metro Weekly
Kate Wingfield
"Their first appeal is to Zafir's Friendship, whose frenetic energy is both comical and familiar; although Friendship is an abstract idea, Zafir clearly has mastered its personification. The combination of weirdly specific and equally generalized references makes it easy to imagine a reference to any friend one can picture, and Zafir's playfulness creates a bright moment..."
Broadway World
Rachael Goldberg
"And Elan Zafir as the disguised and angry Polixenes surprising then berating his terrified son Florizel, also played by Elan Zafir, is not to be missed."
Stage & Cinema
Kevin Vavassuer
"Elan Zafir's smart, nuanced portrayal captures each shift in Thomas' confidence, each layer in the character's fluid sensuality. When the story takes its sharpest turn, the actor turns wonderfully along with it."
The Baltimore Sun
Tim Smith
"Judge me if you will, but in this kind of battle I'm nearly always drawn to the bluntest, rudest character, and Zafir's Alan, a workaholic attorney, does not disappoint, dubbing his own son a savage and espousing a kill-or-be-killed philosophy while taking endless hilarious phone calls about a pharma company crisis."
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jim Higgins
Elan Zafir as the arrogant, self-centered Professor Bernard Nightingale pulls you into his orbit by sheer force of will. Zafir is by turns intense, comical and sympathetic. You can’t help but feel sorry for Nightingale in his smarmy desperation as he grasps for a fleeting moment in the intellectual spotlight.
Front Row Center
Sarah Downs
I hope that this production, this particular production, this sublimely gorgeous production, directed and polished like a precious gem filled with light and love, will return and stay long enough for all to witness its opulence of humanity’s capabilities for both good and evil.
Opening Night Online
Holly Harms
The ensemble is exceptionally strong and so clearly invested in their roles, it is painful watching the steady drumbeat of abuse their characters endure.
New York Stage Review
Roma Torre
A virtuosic international ensemble keeps this harrowing material from becoming too much, demanding that audiences lean in, not tune out.
Zygmunt, played by Elan Zafir, the worst of the Musketeers, is a bully in school, a traitor to his friends, a rapist and inciter of mob violence as a young man, and a hypocrite who lies to Abram and blames the annihilation of the town’s Jews on the Nazis.
Timeout
Raven Snook
Dynamic performances from the cast, all of whom are tasked with playing their characters from school age all the way through death... Students like Zygmunt (Elan Zafir, artfully deploying the shit-eating grin that served him so well in Arcadia).
Exuent NYC
Loren Noveck
The [Our Class] cast is excellent.
Theatre Mania
Zachary Stewart
Wall Street Journal
Charles Isherwood
Elan Zafir as Zygmunt is the most devious of all switching sides and lying when it suits his purpose.
TheatreScene.net
Victor Gluck
The Blacklist
"The Protean"
BIO
Elan Zafir is an actor, and sometimes he writes plays.
He was born in Montreal, Canada and lives in New York City.
He originated the role of Abaddon, in Olivier-nominated writer/director Yael Farber’s critically acclaimed adaptation of Salomé at Shakespeare Theatre Company, which garnered 7 Helen Hayes Awards including Best Ensemble. He played in Theresa Rebeck's comedy WAY OF THE WORLD opposite Kristine Nielsen. In 2024 he appeared in the New York premiere of Our Class by Tadeusz Slobodzianek at BAM, Directed by Igor Golyak. In 2025 Our Class was remounted at The Classic Stage Company where it was nominated for 6 Lucille Lortel Awards, and won 4 including Best Revival and Best Ensemble. Elan recently played the role of Anton at LaMama in Alexander Molochnikov's sold out run of Seagull: True Story, written by Eli Rarey. Elan was nominated for a James MacArthur Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play for his work in TWELVE ANGRY MEN at Ford's Theatre, Directed by Sheldon Epps. He is a company member of the Off Broadway theatre company Bedlam.
Elan plays Rocco on Your Friends and Neighbors (Apple TV), starring Jon Hamm and written by Jonathan Tropper.
He attended The Dome Theatre Program at Dawson College;
He graduated from The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting.
BEDLAM: The Series
"Which of you shall we say doth love us most?"
BEDLAM:THE SERIES NOW STREAMING HOW TO WATCH
Created & Directed by Eric Tucker
Written by Eric Tucker & Musa Gurnis
Take3Talent
Elan is represented by Take3Talent.
Please direct all work-related inquiries here.
Commercial/Voiceover: Evan Malter
Maxine Stillwater
Theatre/Film/TV: Michele Cavallero
1411 Broadway, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10018
(646)-767-7736