NISREEN FAOUR (“Muna Farah”)

Actress/Director Nisreen Faour was born in the village of Tarshiha and traveled to the U.S. to study arts and performance at the age of 16.  Since then, she has gained expertise in theatre, cinema and on television.  On stage, she has performed in more than 15 plays for adults and children, at theatres all over the world.  She played in Sarhan and the Seniorita, which won the Best Acting award at the Monodrama Festival in 1996; Nono colors from the deaf theater, which won first place in the Public Stage Festival in 2002; Don Kichote for Haifa international festival; Albab Alaali by the European Union production, written by the Jordanian writer Hisham Yanis; and Happy Woman by DarioFu and Franka Rama, produced by the national Palestinian theater and directed by Kamel al Basha. 

Her first film was In the Eighth Month with director Ali Nassar.  This was shown in the largest theaters both domestically and abroad in Los Angeles; Paris; Carthage, Tunisia; Iran; and at the Nazareth Film Festival, where she received a Medal of Excellence for her distinguished work.  Her second film as a leading actress is Jamr Alhikaya (Whispering Embers).  On television, her first roles were in the series Family Deluxe and Mishwar Al-Joma.  Adocumentary film directed by Iraqi artist/director Mohammed Tawfiq features some stories about Nisreen’s life.

Faour practiced drama mentoring in schools and with foundations for people with special needs, and she took part in preparing women groups for plays.  She recently finished her studies in theater directing at Haifa University.  She directed and acted in the play The Princess That Hates Men, anddirected Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, which won an award in the Akko Festival in 2006. 

For the past two years, Faour has focused on accomplishing her dream of increasing awareness of quality of life and the state of the environment by being a yoga teacher and Deksha giver, which she studied at The Oneness University in India.  Faour is also the head of a non-official organization called “NoWar.”

MELKAR MUALLEM (“Fadi Farah”)

Born in Jerusalem in 1993, Melkar Muallem is a talented young man who has been participating in drama workshops and playing in various productions since he was eight years old.  At the age of 12, he won the Best Young Actor award at a children’s festival in Ramallah, Palestine.  In 2008 he won a three-year spot at MEET, an MIT University program, for young people in computer science and business studies.  Amreeka is his first movie.

Hiam Abbass was acclaimed for her performance opposite Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins in Thomas McCarthy’s The Visitor.  She was born in Nazareth, but it was after moving to Paris that she began her acting career in movies.

Her feature films have since included Rashid Masharawi’s Haïfa; Ahmed Boulane’s Ali, Rabiaa et les autres; Didier Bivel’s Fais-moi des vacances; Raja Amari’s Satin rouge; Hany Abu-Assad’s Academy Award-nominated Paradise Now; Amos Gitai’s Free Zone and Disengagement; Steven Spielberg’s Munich; and Catherine Hardwicke’s The Nativity Story.  Additionally, on Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel as well as Munich and The Nativity Story, she worked as creative consultant and acting coach to child and/or first-time actors.   Abbass has performed for director Eran Riklis in two films: The Syrian Bride and Lemon Tree, the latter winning the Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival and winning numerous acting awards for Abbass, including a European Film Award nomination for Best Actress and an Israeli Film Academy Award for Best Actress.  

Abbass next begins work on Julian Schnabel’s Miral, starring in the lead role of real-life heroine Hind Husseini.

Success arrived early for Alia Shawkat.  Her career began at the age of 11 when she landed a role on the ABC Family series State of Grace.  However, she is best known for her role as Maeby Funke on Fox’s Emmy award-winning Arrested Development, where she portrayed a rebellious and mischievous member of a dysfunctional Orange County family trying to adjust to their loss of wealth.

Most recently Shawkat was seen opposite William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines in the high school comedy Bart Got a Room, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.  Shawkat can be seen in Whip It, a dramedy from first-time director Drew Barrymore about a misfit teenager who discovers herself through joining a roller derby league.  She stars alongside Ellen Page as Pash, the funny and charming best friend of Bliss (Page) who helps keep her in check. 

Shawkat’s additional film credits include Prom Wars; Rebound opposite Martin Lawrence; the ensemble family comedy Deck the Halls with Matthew Broderick, Danny DeVito and Kristin Chenowith; Three Kings opposite George Clooney; and the supporting lead in Ron Pearlman’s Trail of Old Drum.  

In addition to her bustling film career, Shawkat has many new projects lined up for the small screenl.  She recently wrapped production opposite Megan Mullally and Alicia Silverstone on the ABC pilot Bad Mothers Handbook about a 30-something-year-old woman trying to raise her teenage daughter while also taking care of her mother.  Shawkat can also be seen in a recurring role on USA Network’s breakout hit series Starter Wife, playing a troubled teen who befriends Molly (Debra Messing) and Joan (Judy Davis) at a rehab facility.  Additional television credits include a starring role in the Lifetime original movie Not Like Everyone Else and guest-starring roles on Veronica Mars, JAG, Without a Trace, Boomtown and Presidio Med.

Yussef Abu Warda is a theatre actor from Haifa.  He has been in numerous musical theatre productions performing in both Hebrew and Arabic, in theatres in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

In 2002 he was nominated by the Israeli Film Academy for the Best Supporting Actor in the film Kedma, about immigrants from across Europe arriving in Palestine in 1948 shortly before the creation of the state of Israel.  He also starred in the political drama Disengagement in 2007 and in several television series and programs.