Amr Waked (عمرو واكد ; born April 12, 1973) is an Egyptian film, television and stage actor.
1984
Waked was also criticized by supporters of the Palestinian cause for taking acting role in Wonder Woman 1984 starring Israeli actress and former IDF soldier Gal Gadot.
2002
Waked's first major role was in Ashab wallah business (2002) (Are we friends or just a business).
Reviewers reported that he portrayed the role of "Gehad" so well that many viewers left the theater believing he was actually a Palestinian actor, rather than Egyptian.
2003
His first lead role was as Ahmed in Deil el Samaka (The Fish's tail) (2003), and in 2005 he worked alongside George Clooney in the film Syriana, for which in 2006 he won a 'Special Award for Arabs in The International Cinema' at the Cairo International Film Festival.
2005
He is best known to international audiences and in Hollywood for his role in the 2005 film Syriana.
Other prominent roles include a Yemeni Sheikh called Muhammad in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Pierre Del Rio in Luc Besson's Lucy and Farouk Hassan in ''Ramy.
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2007
Waked joined the cast of the Egyptian television series Lahazat Harega (Critical Moments) in 2007, shooting 32 episodes for season one.
2008
In 2008, Waked joined the cast of the BBC/HBO television series House of Saddam to portray Saddam Hussein's son-in-law Hussein Kamel.
Since the lead role of Saddam Hussein was played by Israeli actor Yigal Naor, Waked faced punishment by Egypt's Actors Union which opposes normalization of ties with Israel.
The union threatened to ban him from all future projects in Egypt.
2009
In 2009, Waked co-hosted the 33rd Cairo International Film Festival, and in 2010 he rejoined the cast of Lahazat Harega.
2011
He joined Hollywood stars Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Gwyneth Paltrow in the 2011 film, Contagion and co-starred in the British film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen with Emily Blunt, Ewan McGregor, and Kristin Scott Thomas.
and also co-starred in Lucy alongside Morgan Freeman and Scarlett Johansson.
2017
He has been residing in Spain since October 2017.
In 2017, he moved to Spain and was sentenced to eight years in prison by an Egyptian court for making pro-democracy comments on social media.
Due to these charges, Waked is not able to return to Egypt.
2019
In 2019, Waked was sentenced to eight years in prison by an Egyptian military court for spreading false news and insulting state institutions.
For that reason, he has no intention of returning to Egypt.
Since 2019, Waked has played the father of main character Ramy Hassan on the Hulu series Ramy.
In 2021 Amr Waked hosted the web series Decoded (Dahaleez) in both Arabic and English.
This was the first time he hosted for a news channel which also led him to being featured on The Muslim 500.
