In the last decade, Mahershala Ali has etched his name in history as one of the finest actors of this generation. In fact, for a period, he was threatening to make the Oscars his playground: in 2017 and 2019, he won the Academy award for Best Supporting Actor, first for Moonlight and then for Green Book.

In no small part thanks to his contribution, both those films also carried the day in the Best Picture category - the earlier not without the infamous mix-up drama with the musical, La La Land at the 2017 event. This kind of success is bound to make any actor distinguished, and that has certainly been the case for Ali.

Still, some people have struggled with how to pronounce his first name. Such would be surprised to learn that Mahershala is in fact a shortened version of an even longer name, whose origin is in the Bible.

Raised In A Very Religious House

Ali was born in 1974 in Oakland, California. He was raised in Hayward in a very religious house; his mother Evie Goines was actually an ordained Baptist minister. He inherited his acting chops from his father Phillip Gilmore, who performed in Broadway on several occasions.

His early career trajectory had him on course to being a professional basketball player, but he never really invested his heart into the game and instead gravitated towards acting. In an interview with GQ, he revealed how this path led him to NYU to study the craft.

Asked why he ditched basketball for acting, Ali said, "It was about getting a basketball scholarship to a Division I school. Once I got that, I didn't set a realistic next goal on how to get to the NBA, which is perhaps for the best."

Mahershala delivering a keynote speech
via: Harry Walker Agency

"I fell into acting. A teacher gave me an opportunity to be in a play and it came a little easy to me. When it got difficult was when I decided to study acting and I went to grad school. I felt like if I got [into NYU] this was what I was supposed to pursue. It just so happened that it worked out."

RELATED: Justin Bieber Converts 'Beliebers" Into 'Believers' With His Last Post

'Hurry To The Spoils'

Given the faith background of his parents, it is no doubt that they chose to go to the Bible to find a name for their son. In doing so, they landed on the second son of the prophet Isaiah, by the name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. The name is a Hebrew translation for the phrase, 'Hurry to the spoils!'

Combining this mouthful of a name with Phillip's surname, Ali's parents christened him Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore. He first shared this story publicly during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2017. As soon as host Jimmy had welcomed Ali, he mentioned how he had practiced over and over just to get the shorter version of his name right.

He then went on to ask his guest about the origins of his full name. "Mahershala is my nickname," Ali said. "My first name is 18 letters long, the longest name in the Bible. It's in the book of Isaiah -- the prophet, Isaiah -- his second son. It's a symbolic name, so he didn't actually have to live through life with that name."

Kimmel of course found humor in the fact that Ali himself had to live with the name, even wondering how TSA react when they see the actor's driver's license.

Converted To Islam

At the age of 26, the actor graduated with his Master's degree from The New York University Tisch School of the Arts. In the same year, he made the decision to convert from Christianity to the Ahmadiyya faction of Islam. In doing so, he also ditched the surname Gilmore, and adopted Ali.

Ali converted to Islam in 2000
via: Vulture

This would become the name under which he has been credited in all the screen performances of his career, although in CBS' The 4400, he appeared as 'Mahershalalhashbaz Ali.'

Picking up Islam also meant picking up all the prejudice that Muslims face, especially in America. For Ali, though, having grown up as an African-American man, he had already dealt with discrimination for the better part of his life. He feels that this prepared him for the bigotry he has experienced as a Muslim.

"If you convert to Islam after a couple of decades of being a black man in the US, the discrimination you receive as a Muslim doesn't feel like a shock," he told the Guardian in 2017. "I've been pulled over, asked where my gun is, asked if I'm a pimp, had my car pulled apart. Muslims will feel like there's this new discrimination that they hadn't received before – but it's not new for us."

NEXT: Here's Why This MCU Star Decided To Change Her Name