Dhaffer, sometimes billed as Dhafer, was born in Tunisia and, after leaving school, played professional football in the Tunisian league. However he decided that he wanted to take up acting and came to Britain, with, on his own admission, virtually no command of the English language, and learned his dramatic skills at the Birmingham School of Acting, from where he graduated in 2002. A year later he was in the television soap 'Dream Team' where, appropriately he was cast as the captain of a football side. Though he has all too often been cast as a Middle Eastern terrorist in his television roles, Dhaffer is an accomplished linguist and speaks Arabic, French and Spanish. In 2008 he appeared in a non-terrorist role in 'A Touch of Frost', but he still ended up being murdered.