Who Is Playing Gabi Ayub? Meet Itzik Cohen, the Actor Bringing ‘Fauda’s’ Captain to Life

Fans binging their way through the latest run of ‘Fauda‘ keep asking the same question, who actually plays the gruff yet deeply human Shin Bet handler steering Doron’s team through chaos. The answer is Itzik Cohen, an Israeli actor whose portrayal of Captain Gabi Ayub has become one of the most recognizable faces of the entire franchise.

Cohen has been part of ‘Fauda’ since its very first season back in 2015, and his performance as the veteran interrogator has only grown richer with each new chapter. Itzhak Cohen, born September 9, 1968, in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, is an actor, filmmaker, and television producer best known for portraying Captain Gabi Ayub in the political thriller television series ‘Fauda’.

Who Plays Gabi in ‘Fauda’?

The character of Gabi has remained one of the show’s constant anchors, and that consistency comes directly from Cohen’s continued involvement. Cohen reprises his role as Captain Gabi Ayub in the newest season, a character who has been a constant presence throughout the show’s run. Within the story, Gabi once worked as a field officer, intelligence expert, and interrogator for Shin Bet.

Cohen’s path to the role was not the obvious one. He wrote that he comes from a background in comedy and musicals, which made him an unexpected fit for the dramatic and complex role of Captain Gabi Ayub. According to Cohen, the show’s creators specifically did not want the stereotype of a tough, macho Shabak investigator, and instead wanted a performance that reached the emotional core of the conflict.

That casting gamble paid off in a major way for both the actor and the series. Cohen had his international breakout moment in 2015 with ‘Fauda’, playing the top interrogator in Israel’s Shin Bet unit, and the show went on to receive major international critical acclaim.

Captain Gabi Ayub’s Role in ‘Fauda’ Season 5

The newest installment finds Gabi in a very different professional position than fans remember. After his ordeal in the previous season, Gabi now works in the private security-technology world rather than operating from his old official position. He is now officially retired from the service and works as a boss at a private security firm, yet he remains a crucial figure within the counter-intelligence world.

Even from the outside, Gabi’s fingerprints are all over the season’s central mission. The intelligence he provides helps turn the pursuit in Marseille into a much broader operation, and he remains the institutional counterweight to Doron’s instincts. He is still effectively the captain, or boss, of Doron, and it is Gabi who instructs the protagonist to head to Marseille and protect Eli at all costs.

Cohen’s Gabi also carries a distinct kind of pressure that separates him from the rest of the unit. Unlike most of the people around him, Gabi has to remain cautious of what administrative or governmental authorities want in any given situation, forcing him to make difficult calls. This layered, cautious energy is part of what makes the character feel indispensable even when he is no longer in the field himself.

Itzik Cohen’s Career Beyond ‘Fauda’

While ‘Fauda’ remains the role that introduced Cohen to a global audience, his career stretches well beyond the Shin Bet drama. He served in the Israel Defense Forces before earning his BA with honors in 1993 from the Department of Theater at Tel Aviv University. In 2021, Cohen began working on the television show ‘The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem’.

His international profile has also expanded through film work outside of Israel. Cohen mentioned finishing a film shoot in Belgium alongside Ben Kingsley and Monica Bellucci, and described receiving warm receptions during his travels through cities like London, Berlin, Miami, Brussels, and Rotterdam because of the show’s reach.

The personal impact of playing Gabi has clearly stayed with Cohen over the years. He wrote that he rarely goes a day without receiving a kind word because of Captain Ayub, whether from Jews, Muslims, Christians, or Druze, in cities including Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Haifa, Akko, and Eilat. That kind of cross-cultural response is rare for any television character, let alone one built around such a politically charged premise.

‘Fauda’ Season 5 Cast alongside Itzik Cohen

Cohen’s Gabi does not carry the newest season alone, and the surrounding ensemble has drawn plenty of attention in its own right. Lior Raz, Yaakov Zada Daniel, and Doron Ben-David return to the same damaged unit, while Mélanie Laurent joins as Anne Aubert, Hakim Djaziri as Saeed, and Bian Anteer as Salem. Anne is tied to the Marseille side of the plot, Saeed becomes the threat behind a planned attack, and Salem is the grieving Bedouin tracker whose private mission pulls Eli off grid.

Other familiar faces round out the world Gabi operates within. Boaz Konforty portrays Avichay, the unit’s sharpshooter, while Rona-Lee Shim’on plays Nurit, known for her field reconnaissance and hand to hand combat skills during the earlier seasons. Mark Ivanir also joined the show during its fourth season as a high ranking Mossad official based in Brussels, expanding the story’s scope into European intelligence circles.

With Gabi now operating from the private sector rather than an official post, his relationship with this evolving cast only grows more interesting to track. Doron still carries the field instincts that drive the show, but this time the mission begins with broken relationships rather than a clean command from the system. Cohen’s steady, world weary version of Gabi remains the connective tissue holding this shifting unit together.

Now that you know the man behind Captain Ayub, does Gabi’s move into the private security world change how you see his role in Doron’s mission this season.