Mahershala Ali and his wife Amatus Sami-Karim, have welcomed their first child together.

Mahershala Ali shares picture of wife Amatus Sami-Karim and baby [Instagram]

Mahershala Ali shares picture of wife Amatus Sami-Karim and baby [Instagram]

The 'Moonlight' actor announced the birth by sharing a picture of his spouse and their baby Bari Najma Ali on Instagram.

He captioned the sweet image: "Bari (Bar-ee) Najma Ali 2/22/17 #pisces (sic)."

Mahershala previously admitted it had been "very challenging" promoting the movie amid awards season while also waiting for the arrival of their first child, and he praised his "warrior" wife for helping him balance his life.

He said: "It's been very challenging, and I'm working on another job as well.

"That's tough... It's always a fight to try and balance it, and you're not going to, that's the thing. You have to just see that you are going to, in some way shape or form, neglect some aspect of your life that needs to be tended to and that's hard.

"A big help is I have a supportive partner who loves me and gets it and has been a soldier throughout this."

The 42-year-old star joked his life feels like a movie, with the Academy Awards - at which he is nominated for Best Supporting Actor - and arrival of his baby due so close together.

He quipped': "You couldn't write it this way! I'd watch that movie and be like, 'OK, who make that up?' "

While he couldn't be happier about his professional success, Mahershala is looking forward to the end of awards season so he can look back and "appreciate" everything that has happened, including his recent Screen Actors Guild award win.

He said: "You don't get a break to really be reflective. That's the only thing I look forward to this, about this being over, is that I get to look back and appreciate the time. But right now just taking it a day at a time and really enjoying the opportunities we get to share the film."