Amir El-Masry is an award-winning British-Egyptian actor. He won Best Young Actor at the 2009 Egyptian Oscars after acting in his first film.
Success in Egyptian media led to opportunities in British and American film. Audiences will recognize him from British series including The Night Manager and Industry. He also appeared in the film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
BAFTA Scotland honored El-Masry’s latest project, Limbo, with a total of four awards.
Amir El-Masry starred in Egyptian and British film
Amir El-Masry’s father met Omar Sharif, a famous Egyptian actor, by chance in Paris. The connection led to El-Masry meeting Sharif at the premiere of Lawrence of Arabia in France. A conversation with the film’s screenwriter landed him an audition for Ramadan Mabrouk Abul-Alamein Hamouda. El-Masry won the Egyptian Oscar for the role at age 18.
“It was insane, and I felt like a fraud because I was essentially playing myself,” El-Masry told ScreenDaily.
El-Masry’s success on the screen led to opportunities in British and American film. He appeared in the 2014 film Rosewater after completing drama school. In 2016 he appeared in the BBC and AMC miniseries The Night Manager as a hotel chef. He also took a role in Woody Harrelson’s 2017 movie Lost in London: Live.
The actor scored a recurring role as Ibrahim in the 2018 American action thriller series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. He played Commander Trach in the 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In the 2020 British-American drama series Industry, El-Masry plays assistant Usman Abboud
El-Masry starred alongside Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Laurie in the 2021 Netflix sci-fi miniseries The One. He played the role of Ben Naser, best friend of the protagonists.
In the future, the actor plans to appear in Steven Knight’s series SAS: Rogue Heroes and an Egyptian romantic comedy Ritsa. El-Masry also tried his hand at scriptwriting. He collaborated on a comedy-drama pilot episode based on his experience growing up.
Amir El-Masry addresses representation
El-Masry was born in Cairo in 1990. He grew up in Ealing, west London with his younger brother.
As a child, El-Masry was extremely shy, the actor told Bustle. His mother placed him in afterschool acting classes after noticing a rise in confidence whenever her son wore a costume.
After filming his debut film Ramadan Mabrouk Abul-Alamein Hamouda, El-Masry returned to the UK for school. He graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 2013, Having continued to film Egyptian movies while studying.
“When I was at drama school I could play anything,” El-Masry told The Guardian. “But the reality soon hits you once you’re out.”
“Of course, being a Muslim myself, I have a problem with the representation on film and television,” El-Masry said about the roles for which he’s most often considered. “What I like to do is sit down with the film-makers and find out why they’ve chosen to tackle this subject.”
Amir El-Masry stars in BAFTA-nominated Limbo
Limbo is an “absurdist, deadpan comedy about a group of asylum seekers that are sent to a remote Scottish Island,” writer-director Ben Sharrock told The Upcoming.
A group of Syrians await permission from the UK Home Office to remain in a remote town in Scotland. Unable to work, the group forms unlikely friendships as weeks and months pass by. Sharrock decided to tell this story using dry humor after visiting refugee camps in Syria.
“[The film] tries to humanize the refugee experience…it’s just about people,” Sharrock said. El-Masry plays the central role of Omar, a Syrian musician separated from his family after applying for asylum.
“He’s someone who’s been stripped of his identity having left his country, and we can all relate to that feeling of wanting to find a sense of home,” El-Masry explained.
Limbo received many nominations from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The film was up for the 2021 Outstanding British Film and Outstanding British Writer, Director, or Producer awards. El-Masry himself was nominated for Best Actor based on his performance in 2020. Limbo won all four.
“I feel grateful. It’s been a crazy journey in this industry. To be recognized for Limbo is an incredible honor,” El-Masry said in an interview. “I haven’t seen Middle Eastern, North African actors be given that opportunity to showcase their work on a global platform.”
Limbo is available to stream online including on YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV. Watch the trailer on YouTube here.
