Carlo Rota

Carlo Rota is an English-born Italian-Canadian actor, best known to Canadian audiences for his role on Little Mosque on the Prairie and to international audiences for starring on the FOX series 24.

Early life
Rota was born in London, England to Italian parents, the son of Rina, who worked in the restaurant business, and Dante Rota, a world-renowned chef. He grew up in Soho with two sisters and one brother. Through his life he has lived in many places of the world, including Hong Kong (where he attended Island School), the Bahamas and Britain before his family settled in Toronto. Rota worked in the culinary industry for many years until he decided to abruptly switch careers to acting.

Career
Almost immediately thereafter, Rota landed roles in the Canadian TV series Street Legal and the critically acclaimed Canadian independent film Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. Because of his experience prior to acting, he also hosted the Great Canadian Food Show for CBC television in Canada, a series which was nominated for the prestigious James Beard Award for Excellence in Culinary Journalism.

He has appeared in numerous popular TV series including 24, Queer as Folk (US version), Castle, La Femme Nikita, Relic Hunter, Adventure Inc, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, The Gospel of John and Traders. Rota co-starred in the CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie, playing Lebanese-Canadian construction contractor Yasir Hamoudi. Rota also played a journalist for The Herald in the horror flick, Saw V.

On 24, Rota portrayed the recurring role of Morris O'Brian, the arrogant but brilliant computer scientist husband of Chloe O'Brian. He appeared in a few episodes of seasons 5 and 7 but appeared for the entire length of season 6.

Rota had a recurring role on the TV series La Femme Nikita as the smarmy, green-listed terrorist informant, Mick Schtoppel; later revealed to be Mr. Jones, a high-ranking member of Section. In the 1999 movie The Boondock Saints, Rota starred as crime boss Giuseppe "Papa Joe" Yakavetta.

He has made guest appearances in many other television series, including Stargate Universe, playing Carl Strom, head of the International Oversight Advisory, the civilian oversight committee that heads up the Atlantis expedition and its funding as a villain named The Ghost on channel USA, White Collar, as well as CSI: NY, Human Target, The Mentalist and Bones. He also appeared on NCIS: Los Angeles in the episode "Found" as Kalil Abramson, as well as on AMC's show, Breaking Bad. He was a guest on episode 11 of the second season of Top Chef Canada, the episode dedicated to Italian cuisine 1. He acts as Edmund Wooler, in World Without End on Reelz Channel.

He married 24 co-star Nazneen Contractor on 1 April 2010.

In 2013, he was announced as the new host of Recipe to Riches, a Canadian reality show.

He provided the voice and motion-capture performance for Majid Sadiq, leader of The Engineers, in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist.