Mena Massoud

Massoud was born in Cairo to Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christian parents. He has two elder sisters.[4] He and his family emigrated to Canada when he was three years old.[5] When asked why his family left Egypt, Massoud stated, "I was born there. We immigrated when I was 3 1/2 years old, to Toronto. But I'm still very, very close to my culture and – back home in Egypt. We're Coptic Christian and my parents just felt like things were getting a little too dangerous when I was growing up in Egypt. They wanted to create a better life for their family so they decided to emigrate to Canada."[6] Massoud grew up in Markham, Ontario,[1] where he attended St. Brother André Catholic High School.[6][7]

Massoud began acting in 2011, with guest appearances on the television series Nikita and Combat Hospital.[8] In 2015, he was cast as Jared Malik in the Canadian-drama series Open Heart, which was cancelled after one season. In 2017, he starred as Ollie Santos in the film Ordinary Days.[9] In 2018, he had a recurring role as Tarek Kassar in the Amazon Prime original series Jack Ryan.

Massoud in 2019

In 2019, Massoud portrayed the titular character in Disney's fantasy-adventure film Aladdin, which is a live-action adaption of the animated film of the same name.[1] For his performance, he received a Teen Choice Award nomination, and two National Film & TV Award nominations.[10][11] In the same year, he was cast in the main role of Ethan Hart in the Hulu original series Reprisal.[12] Also in 2019, he appeared as Chaz in the thriller film Strange but True, and starred as Kamal in the drama film Run This Town.[13]

In January 2021, Massoud was announced to play the male lead in Netflix's feature film, The Royal Treatment.[14][15][16] That same month, it was announced that Massoud would star as the leading role in his first Egyptian film, Fe Ez El-Dohr.[17] He is slated to reprise his role of Aladdin in an upcoming sequel.[17][18]

Massoud is an admirer of Egyptian comedy movies, in an interview with the BBC, he stated how his Egyptian heritage has inspired him as a comedian, stating: "I grew up watching Egyptian comedy films by the great Egyptian comedians such as Ismail Yassine and Adel Emam.[19] The way they entertain the audience with not only their words but with their body language and facial expressions is totally different from that of the actors here. I played a lot of comedy roles in American productions. My role in Aladdin is also a comedy role. I believe I play comedy roles with a different taste that I learned from our own Egyptian cinema and this makes it appealing in a different way."[20]

Massoud is an avid fan of his local basketball team, the Toronto Raptors of the NBA.[21] Massoud is a vegan and the founder of the book and community of Evolving Vegan.[22][23]

In 2019, he launched the Ethnically Diverse Artists Foundation to help artists from underrepresented groups jumpstart their careers through securing mentors, training, headshots and includes support for actors, musicians, and visual artists.[24]

• Mena Massoud at IMDb
• Mena Massoud on Twitter