Haithem was born in Basra, a southern Iraqi City on the border of Iran and Kuwait. His father was working two jobs to raise his eight children including Haithem.

Haithem didn't get to study acting at an early age, but when he was five years old, he used to watch western movies everyday and was inspired by John Wayne and Lee Majors from "The Six Million Dollar Man". 

Haithem lived through two wars, the Iran/Iraq war and the US/Iraq war. 

Post the 1991 Iraqi uprising, Haithem escaped Iraq and gained political asylum with the United States as a refugee . Following this, he was sent to a Saudi Arabian refugee camp in the desert for four years. He immigrated to the US in 1994. Haithem became a United States citizen on March 24, 2005.

Haithem studied acting at Stella Adler Acting School in Hollywood. He also studied accent reduction and dialect training at the Los Angeles City College. He speaks fluent Arabic and has written a few screenplays.

Haithem looks to make a big impact on the entertainment world from this point on.