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Season 1 Wrap Party

Learned so much from these two! Check out Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV

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Law & Order: Organized Crime (2024)

"Sins of Our Fathers"Season 4 Ep. 8As Bell and the squad come up with a plan to bring the Westbrook case officially into their jurisdiction, Chief Bonner struggles with unanswered questions about her past and her beloved town. Stabler learns the outcome of his IAB investigation.

IMDB

OUR CLASS (2024)Classic Stage Company

written by TADEUSZ SŁOBODZIANEKdirected by IGOR GOLYAKadaptation by NORMAN ALLENSeptember 12-November 3, 2024

Tickets

OUR CLASS (2024)Classic Stage Company

written by TADEUSZ SŁOBODZIANEKdirected by IGOR GOLYAKadaptation by NORMAN ALLENSeptember 12-November 3, 2024

Tickets

OUR CLASS

Jan 12—Feb 11th at BAM

Directed by Igor Golyak

Written by Tadeusz Slobodzianek

BAM

Friends. Enemies. Classmates. Based on the true story

Ten Polish classmates — five Jewish and five Catholic — grow up as friends and neighbors, then turn on one another with life and death consequences. Inspired by real life events surrounding a horrific 1941 pogrom in a small Polish village, this shocking, timely story follows their lives from childhood through eight decades in a new contemporary production of Tadeusz Słobodzianek’s masterpiece, from Ukrainian-born Jewish director Igor Golyak (The Orchard; State vs. Natasha Banina).

VIEW TRAILER

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Actor Reel (2024)

Reviews

"The most impressive juggling act comes from Zafir, who plays both father and son in a confrontation at the altar of young love."

The New York Times

Naveen Kumar

"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

"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, delivering a wonderfully contemptible, utterly unapologetic performance)—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

"The Milwaukee Rep has staged a superbly acted, shocking, relatable, tornado of a black comedy with God of Carnage... brought together by four brilliant actors."

Broadway World

Kelsey Lawler

"God of Carnage is a hilarious romp that keeps you laughing until your teeth ache."

Shepherd Express

Anne Siegel

"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

"As the macho workaholic constantly on his cell phone – though we never believe there is anyone real being abused on the other end – Elan Zafir gets off some great swagger as the “I don’t care” father who often speaks the hard truth."

Urban Milwaukee

Dominique Paul Noth

"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.

Timeout

Raven Snook

Zygmunt, played by Elan Zafier, 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.

Exuent NYC

Loren Noveck

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).

Theatre Mania

Zachary Stewart

The cast is excellent.

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 four Catholic classmates: Heniek (Will Manning), Wladek (Ilia Volok), Zygmunt (Elan Zafir), and Rysiek (Jose Espinosa), though driven to savagery in Act One, manage to elicit our compassion in Act II as history and fate catches up with each of them.

Theatre Pizzazz
Carol Rocamora

The ensemble’s marvelously nuanced performances balance epic theatricality with heartbreaking intimacy.

Off Off line
James Wilson

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. He was part of Simon Goodwin's inagural year as Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Theatre Company in the award winning play EVERYBODY by Brandon Jacob Jenkins. 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.

Since relocating to New York in April of 2021 he has appeared in seven theatres, and booked six national TV series including: Your Friends and Neighbors, Law & Order (Organized Crime), The Blacklist, East New York, Law & Order, and FBI: International.

He wrote and performed in his one man show, The Unaccompanied Minor, which had its world premiere at the Asheville Fringe Festival, went on to perform at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and finally completed it's journey at the DC Fringe where Roger Catlin of The Washington Post called his play "A top pick of the fringe."

He attended The Dome Professional Theatre Program at Dawson College in Montreal, and graduated from The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting University.