This is the second part as we continue this spotlight series on some rather amazing 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 terrific artists but wonderful human beings that have come to my attention recently in their art and advocacy. Here are the eight that you should know:
Najla Said is a Palestinian American author, actress, playwright, and activist. Through her literary and academic work, Said has confronted racism, stereotyping, social and economic inequality, and among others, the specific challenges that face immigrant and second-generation Americans. Said grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Her father was the noted postcolonial scholar and public intellectual Edward Said and her mother is the writer and activist Mariam C. Said.
As an actress, Najla has performed Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally, as well as in film and television. Favorite theatre credits include Heather Raffo’s Nine Parts of Desire (Seattle Rep), the London and New York premieres of Karen Malpede’s Prophecy, and Naomi Wallace’s The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East (Central Square Theater). In April 2010, Najla completed an eight-week Off-Broadway run of her solo show, Palestine. That same year, she was named one of “Forty Feminists Under Forty” by The Feminist Press. Since her off-Broadway run ended, Najla has performed “Palestine” in over 25 high schools, colleges, and universities around the country and the world.
Najla is one of New York Theatre Workshop’s “Usual Suspects,” and has also worked at the Public, The Cherry Lane, New Dramatists, The Lark, and Second Stage, among others.
Serena Rasoul started her training taking classes in the Department of Drama at the University of Virginia. After graduating, she continued her studies at the Theater Lab, School for Dramatic Arts in Washington DC. And has recently completed a Fellowship at Harvard Divinity School, working with artists from underrepresented communities. She is currently consulting the National Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art as a Community Engagement Specialist working with Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim artists and community groups.
She is the founder of MA Casting — a casting agency that casts and advocates for Muslim and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA aka SWANA) talent in the TV/Film, Commercial and Art industries. She has been featured on NPR, Variety, the Washington Post, NBCNews, and the Harvard Crimson. She spearheaded the first study and test on the portrayal of Muslim women on-screen called, “Surviving to Thriving”: Muslim Women’s On-Screen Test with the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media.
Serena served on the Advisory Group for the Pillars Fund initiative, Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion: Recommendations for Film Industry Professionals. This initiative was part of the USC Annenberg study on Muslim inclusion in film called Missing and Maligned: The Reality of Muslims in Popular Global Movies.
Jennifer Jajeh is an American actress and writer. She was born in San Francisco, California to parents of Palestinian Christian descent. Jajeh gained a Double B.A. in History and Philosophy from UCLA, then pursued acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Conservatory in New York City.
Eventually, she made her way to Los Angeles in 2014 after touring her critically acclaimed one woman show across the US, the UK and Middle East for five years. I actually covered this remarkable show way back in 2011 during my time writing for 8Asians!
These days, Jennifer can be found on stages across the world honing her unique brand of political comedy and storytelling. And when she’s not writing and performing, she’s probably with her dog Luna at her laundromat in the Valley.
Lameece Isaaq is an actor, voice over actor and writer who is also the co-founder and former artistic director of the Obie Award-winning company, Noor Theatre, a company dedicated to the work of theater artists of Middle Eastern descent. She has over fifteen years of experience working in the professional theater as an actor, writer and producer. Not only has she been involved in the Arab American artist community, but also the New York theater scene, having worked at such esteemed institutions as the Public Theater and New York Theater Workshop and with many of New York’s finest theater artists, including Tony-Award winning directors Sam Gold and Daniel Sullivan and playwrights Naomi Wallace and David Hare. Lameece brings Noor together with well-known institutions and artists, and her own aesthetic has been shaped by her work with some of theater’s most respected luminaries.
She wrote her first full-length play, Food and Fadwa, and performed in it off-Broadway and won a Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble in the play Stuff Happens. Currently, she is performing her solo performance show A Good Day To Me Not You which is performing at the Connelly Theater in NYC till December 16.
Saagar Shaikh spent about a decade in Los Angeles acting in short films and commercials before getting his start as a breakout at the Disney Television Discovers: Talent Showcase. From there, he landed the role of Aamir Khan in the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel. He thought a breakout role might never come, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and shut down Hollywood productions. Luckily, he never gave up and impressed Marvel producers who made him part of the Khan family.
Not only is he playing the role of Aamir Khan in the Marvel Disney+ limited series Ms. Marvel, but he reprises his role in the Marvel feature The Marvels, starring Brie Larson. He is also a lead in the Hulu Original series, Deli Boys which is set to shoot early 2024. On the show, he plays a character named Raj Dar, the Pakistani American pot-smoking son of a rich convenience store owner who unexpectedly dies.
Sunil Malhotra was born in New Delhi, India, and arrived in Chicago at the age of six months old after his flight crash-landed. At least that’s the official story. He’s been making entrances ever since…
After years of studying music, playing the trombone and guitar, fronting a punk band, and a short stint as a DJ for a Chicago radio station, Sunil decided to pursue his other passion – the law. Specifically, Criminal Law, much to the dismay of his parents (weren’t there other fields within the law that were safer and less sordid?). But then, Sunil accepted a dare to audition for a play in his first year of college (at which point his parents sang the praises of the honorable and upstanding profession of Criminal Law) and soon he graduated Cum Laude from Indiana University’s prestigious Theatre & Drama program, with a double major in Communications. Luckily, his parents eventually came around!
From there, Sunil moved to New York City to pursue his career as an actor. There, he met cousins he never knew he had, fellow South Asian actors and filmmakers with whom he joined to make groundbreaking films and theatre, and Dr. Sumun L. Pendakur, the woman of his dreams (who also happened to be from the north side of Chicago!). The two of them currently reside in Los Angeles with their mischievous and adorable son and daughter, where Sunil continues to work as an actor in film, television, theatre, animation, and video games, as well as an award-winning audiobook narrator.
Yasmeen Ansari-Roberts is Black American, Muslim born in Southern California. Growing up, she lived between the US, Saudi Arabia and the UK, and is now living and working in the UK fulltime. She speaks Hejazi Arabic as a second language to professional efficiency, and have worked as a consultant to Western clients for Western audiences on the Arab language, accent, culture and Muslim faith.
Working on Rebel Girls Inc. for one of their Goodnight Stories has been a major highlight in her voiceover career. She also worked with Panera Bread on an internal corporate video and has lent her voice to all the female roles/verses in an English dramatization of the Quran for a company called The Clear Quran.
Maaz Ali is a Muslim American actor and model with Pakistani and Indian roots. He is known as Kamal in Season 12 of American Horror Story (FX, Hulu) in his first series regular role. Ali can be seen on-screen for his roles in Hiraeth (Amazon Prime), Mythic Quest (Apple TV+), and Lethal Weapon (FOX). He also appeared in short films such as Sultana, Just One Night, and ALHAMDU, an official selection at the 2022 Atlanta Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival.
He can be heard through his ADR work for Disney+’s Ms. Marvel (in both English and Urdu), dubbing for the English voices of Buddha and Vishnu in Netflix’s Record of Ragnarok and on a number of video games requiring impersonations.
In his spare time, Ali models for a number of Los Angeles-based fashion brands and can be seen on the runway at Los Angeles Fashion Week (LAFW) and New York Fashion Week (NYFW). He also played the lead actor and dancer in Circles by Tesla Boys, which was selected and featured at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival.
