This is the sixth and final (for now) iteration spotlighting truly fantastic SWANASA (South West Asia, North Africa, and South Asia) actors that you should know, whether they are well known or not. What they have in common is that not only are they are all incredible artists but they are also wonderful human beings that have come to our attention recently in their art and advocacy. Here are the eight you should know:
Emily Rose Debinie was born in Nazareth, in the Middle East and grew up in Jerusalem. A performing artist since 1995, she received a Bachelor Degree in Drama & Arabic Literature from the University of London. Emily quickly gained attention in the puppeteer and theatre world that helped her get accepted in the Jim Hanson group as a dancer & character body suit performer.
She’s mostly known for performing with Alice Cooper Universal show, HBO’s Live from Baghdad and the Socom Video Game series. Emily has also done extensive voiceover work for different TV Shows including the Hit Series Homeland. She now resides in Los Angeles and continues to work as a Voice Over Actor for numerous Netflix , Prime and major studio shows like Marvel Films.
Christina Costello is a mixed Lebanese Middle Eastern and Disabled voice actor with a love of bringing projects to life. She has extensive training, passion, and a quick turnaround time. She specializes in child to young adult voices with medium to high pitched registers. Her current best known work includes voicing Alma in Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles, Collei in Genshin Impact and Mozzarella Cookie in CookieRun: Kingdom.
Lara Shah is an actor and producer in Los Angeles. She started her acting career in Austin, TX and has since been in over 100 films, television shows, music videos, and commercials since her venture into the creative side of the entertainment industry. Lara has won Best Actress awards for her lead roles in Trippin’ to the Altar and Kendall County Hunters. Lara has a passion for storytelling and entertainment: she was a television anchor in high school, a radio host at Boston University, and an intern at MTV Networks in NYC. She also worked for five years in Domestic TV Distribution Sales at Warner Bros.
Maissa Houri is an Arab Canadian award-winning independent filmmaker and actress based out of Ottawa, Canada, who attended Montreal’s Vanier College Theatre and Film Program. Having started out as an actress and finding that 99% of her auditions consisted of a terrorist or refugee, Maissa decided to create her own work in order to properly represent her rich Arab culture. Maissa is passionate about telling stories from the perspective of being a second-generation Arab Canadian and shedding light on the misrepresentations of Arabs and other people of color on TV and film. Maissa co-founded the Eve Film Festival in which she was also the Director of Industry Events.
Currently, Maissa is the Director of Womxn’s Industry for the Digi60 Film Festival in Ottawa. In a few short years, Maissa released an award-winning web series and two award-winning short films. She has been actively working on corporate sets as assistant director, producer and set designer. Maissa is also working on the development of a new series based on Arab Canadians, producing short films for emerging BIPOC directors and a new Instagram Live segment titled Moms After Dark where she interviews mothers working in the creative field. In 2020, Maissa released a short film called Empathy in which she wrote and produced for Nigerian director Austin Odigie. Empathy was well received and recognized by the Black Actors Guild of Canada.
Sandy Issa Balat grew up in the the Bay Area (while her parents are from Palestine) and as a kid she was always the jokester/goofball/you name it. It was therefore a no-brainer that she is a Second City graduate which allowed her to hone her improvisational skills as well as studying at various acting studios to broaden her toolbelt. Techniques include Meisner and Stanislavski to name a few.
You may have seen er on ABC’s For The People, Tosh.0 on Comedy Central and heard her voice on the Netflix original series, Paranormal. Also, She’s had lead/supporting roles in several films and performed sketch comedy/improv in many theater venues including the world famous Second City! Comedy is her specialty, however, her tough edge can rock out some drama! She’s been told she is a younger version of Kathy Bates! 😉
Samiya Khan is a Pakistani American Actress/Singer/Model, based in Los Angeles, California. Over the years, Samiya has always been involved with the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, one way or another. Whether it was being a professional fashion model in Los Angeles, a show stopper for various famous International designers, or opening the concert for the Bollywood singer Alka Yagnik, sharing stage with famous international singers.
Samiya began her burgeoning acting career in Los Angeles in theater, having studied sketch comedy, acting and improv at The Groundlings Theatre & School and continues to regularly attend conservatory classes and seminars by myriad Hollywood directors including with Tom Todoroff et al. Samiya has been a consistent fixture in Los Angeles’ entertainment and fashion industries delving into myriad oeuvres as a professional fashion print model; a celebrity showstopper for leading international designers; being the opening act for Bollywood singer Alka Yagnik and sharing the stage with internationally renowned singers.
Most recently in 2022, Samiya has worked with The Walt Disney Company on numerous eclectic projects and in the recent past has featured in productions by HBO and Warner Bros. Pictures. Samiya also works in Pakistan’s film and television industries, being able to fluently read, write, speak her native language, Urdu and translate it from English with dexterity and command. In Pakistan Samiya is best known for roles in TV serials for leading channels including Zoya Swaleha for GEO TV and Khamoshi on HUM TV, among others.
Sarah Dillinger is a mixed Lebanese and Russian voice actor, singer and dancer based out of Los Angeles. She was a professional ballet dancer before venturing into acting. She performed in productions of A Chorus Line and West Side Story where she was able to use both her dancing and acting skills. She is trained in classical, musical theater and pop styles of singing.
Kamran R. Khan is a screen and voice actor that has appeared on television shows alongside stars LL Cool J, Jack Black, Patricia Arquette, and Jack McBrayer. He has performed voiceover work for animated series’ like Mira Royal Detective, Ghee Happy, and Boons and Curses. He’s done ADR for films like the Oscar-winning film Zero Dark Thirty and Jurassic World, television shows like Homeland, Criminal Minds, Better Call Saul, and New Girl, and more and performed motion capture and voiceover work for video games Scavengers and Uncharted.
He’s also the narrator of audiobooks like The Point of Retreat, How to be a Muslim, All My Rage, The Golden Hawks of Genghis Khan, and Son of Nepal. His commercial voiceover clients include Apple, Disney, Lexus, HP, McAfee, McDonald’s, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Taco Bell, Wells Fargo, Western Union, McAfee, Accenture, Kaiser Permanente, AIG, Novartis, Pfizer, Merck, Fidelity, Allstate, State Farm and many more.