As a native New Yorker, born and raised in Harlem, Hakim's first "on set" experience came at the age of seven on PBS's 'Reading Rainbow'. He fell in love with performing at the Harlem School of the Arts in 1992 he continued to hone the craft as an adult in New York City for years with Mary Boyer at MYB Studio in Hell's Kitchen, a studio consistently nominated for Backstage's Readers Choice Awards for training year after year in NYC. He then relocated to Florida and began studying Meisner technique at Yvonne Suhor's 'Art's Sake Studio' and Lauren O' Quinn's 'Class Act Studios' in Orlando. He now resides in Atlanta, Ga and formed The Bungalow Productions alongside Jesse Malinowski & Aaron Smalls as a resource for actors in the south east while continuing to work as an actor and study the craft as well as the business.