Amr Waked is an Egyptianfilm, television, and stageactor. He is best known to international audiences and in Hollywood for his role in the 2005 filmSyriana. Other prominent roles include him playing a Yemeni Sheikh called Muhammad in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Pierre Del Rio in Luc Besson's Lucy and Geostorm''. In 2019, Waked was sentenced to eight years in prison by an Egyptian military court for spreading false news and insulting state institutions; therefore, he has no intention of returning to Egypt. Currently, he has been residing in Spain since October 2017.
Career
Waked's first ever major role was in Ashab wallah business , for which reviewers offered 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. His first lead role was as Ahmed in Deil el Samaka , 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. Waked joined the cast of the Egyptian television seriesLahazat Harega in 2007, shooting 32 episodes for season one. In 2008, Waked joined the cast of the BBC/HBO television seriesHouse 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. In 2009, Waked co-hosted the 33rd Cairo International Film Festival, and in 2010 he rejoined the cast of Lahazat Harega. 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. 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 has not been able to return to Egypt. Since 2019, Waked has played the father of main character Ramy Hassan on the Hulu series Ramy.
