Samba Schutte

Samba Dirk-Jan Schutte is a Mauritanian-Dutch actor, comedian, and writer. He is known for his role as Roach in the series Our Flag Means Death and for portraying Hakim in Sunnyside, the first Ethiopian character in an American sitcom. He also stars in the 2025 American sci-fi series Pluribus.

Early life and education

Samba Dirk-Jan Schutte was born in Nouakchott, Mauritania, to a Mauritanian Muslim mother and a Dutch Christian father. At the age of two, he relocated to Ethiopia when his father began working for a non-governmental organization.

He was educated at the Sandford International School in Addis Ababa. His interest in acting was sparked at age 12 after playing the video game Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair. In 2001, he moved to the Netherlands to study theatre at the Utrecht School of the Arts.

Career

Early career in the Netherlands

Schutte began performing stand-up comedy in Dutch clubs in 2004, later joining the comedy collective Comedy Explosion. In 2006, he won both the Jury and Audience Awards at the Leids Cabaret Festival, leading to several years of national touring. He also worked as a writer and presenter for the Dutch adaptation of The Daily Show, titled De Nieuwste Show[nl].

United States

In 2011, Schutte moved to Los Angeles on an O-1 visa for "Aliens of Extraordinary Ability." Shortly after arriving, he won a competition at The Comedy Store and became a regular performer there. He broke into American film with a role in the 2016 comedy The Tiger Hunter.

His breakthrough television role came in 2019 when he was cast as Hakim, an Ethiopian heart surgeon driving a taxi in New York City, in the NBC sitcom Sunnyside. Schutte connected deeply with the role, drawing on his own immigrant experience. Schutte gained wider recognition for his role as the ship's cook Roach in the acclaimed HBO Max series Our Flag Means Death (2022–2023).[citation needed]

He has established a prolific voice-acting career, with roles in animated series such as The Legend of Vox Machina, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, and Monster High.[citation needed] He also performed voice work for the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (2024).

In 2025, he appeared as Koumba Diabaté in the Apple TV science fiction series Pluribus.

Personal life

Schutte is multilingual, fluent in English, French, Dutch, and Amharic. He has vitiligo, a skin pigmentation condition, which he has spoken about managing after initial fears it would impact his career. He met his wife, a film producer, in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Accolades

External links

• at IMDb