Calamawy's Bahrain Roots: A Cultural Insight

May Calamawy is an Egyptian-Palestinian actress who was born in Bahrain and has since risen to fame in Hollywood. Calamawy is known for her roles in the television series Ramy, as well as the Marvel Disney+ series Moon Knight, in which she portrays Layla El-Faouly, an Egyptian archeologist and the first Arab superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Calamawy was born to an Egyptian father and a Palestinian-Jordanian mother and was raised mostly in Bahrain, with time also spent in Doha, Qatar, and Houston, Texas. She completed high school in Bahrain before moving to Boston to study industrial design and then theatre studies at Emerson College. She has since appeared in numerous films and TV shows, including Djinn, The Long Road Home, and FBI.

May Calamawy's early life in Bahrain

May Calamawy was born on 28 October 1986 in Bahrain to an Egyptian father and a Palestinian-Jordanian mother. She has an older brother. Calamawy was raised primarily in Bahrain and also spent six years living between Doha, Qatar, and Houston, Texas, before she turned twelve. She completed high school in Bahrain and speaks fluent Arabic and English.

At the age of 17, Calamawy moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to study industrial design at her father's request. After graduating, she moved to Dubai, where she lived for five years before relocating back to the United States to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. She applied to Emerson College, telling her parents, "If I get in, I'm going." She was accepted and went on to earn a B.A. in theatre studies. She also studied at the William Esper Studio in New York City.

Calamawy started her acting career by appearing in short films and was credited with her full name, May El Calamawy, before changing it to May Calamawy. From 2009 to 2014, she divided her time between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, acting in shorts and a TV pilot. Her first major film role was in Tobe Hooper's 2013 film "Djinn", the first horror film produced in the United Arab Emirates.

Her career as an actress

May Calamawy is an Egyptian-Palestinian actress born in Bahrain on 28 October 1986. She is known for her roles in the Hulu series Ramy, Marvel's Moon Knight, National Geographic's The Long Road Home, CBS' FBI, and Madame Secretary.

Calamawy was inspired to become an actress after watching the 1992 film Death Becomes Her as a child. She completed her high school education in Bahrain and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, at 17 to study industrial design, as her father wanted her to. However, she soon after pursued her passion for acting and applied to Emerson College, declaring to her parents: "If I get in, I'm going." She earned a B.A. in theatre studies and also studied at the William Esper Studio in New York City.

Calamawy started her acting career in college, first appearing in short films and later taking on her first major film role in Tobe Hooper's 2013 film Djinn, the first horror film produced in the United Arab Emirates. She has since starred in numerous films, including Thursday (2006), Temperance (2007), Santa Claus in Baghdad (2008), Hassad Al Möta (2011), Paradise Fall (2011), A Genie Called Gin (2012), Moi Aussie Je time (2013), The Bed (2019), Passerby (2019), 1 Out of 30 (2019), Saeed (2019), and Together Together (2021).

In 2017, Calamawy landed a recurring role in the National Geographic miniseries The Long Road Home and guest-starred in The Brave and Madam Secretary. The following year, she guest-starred in the CBS crime drama series FBI. In October 2018, she joined the cast of the Hulu comedy-drama series Ramy, playing the role of Dena Hassan, Ramy's sister. Calamawy's performance in Ramy incorporated her personal experience with alopecia, an autoimmune disease diagnosed when she was 22 years old.

Calamawy's most recent success has been her role as Layla El-Faouly, an Egyptian archeologist and estranged wife of Marc Spector, in Marvel's Moon Knight. This role marks her biggest project to date and has earned her widespread recognition. She auditioned for the role through Instagram, contacted by the director's wife. Moon Knight premiered in 2022, and in the same year, it was announced that she would join the voice cast of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur as a guest star. Calamawy has continued to take on diverse roles, including in the upcoming thriller The Actor and Ridley Scott's Gladiator II.

Her role in Ramy

May Calamawy is a rising Hollywood star, born in Bahrain and raised in Houston and Doha. She is an Egyptian-Palestinian actress, who is fluent in both Arabic and English. Calamawy is known for her role as Dena Hassan, the sister of the titular character, Ramy, in the Hulu television series, *Ramy*.

In the series, Dena is a graduate student, frustrated by the restrictions imposed on her by her overprotective parents. This is in contrast to her brother, Ramy, a millennial American Muslim, who grapples with his faith and lifestyle, and the judgment of his friends and family. Dena regularly critiques the double standards against which she and Ramy are judged.

Dena's story arc includes her experience with virginity and her concerns about her status as one. After talking with her friends, she decides to meet with a local barista who flirts with her. She goes back to his apartment, but things do not go well. Later in the series, Dena is accepted into law school and earns a scholarship. However, her parents are not enthusiastic about the news, which upsets her. She then starts to notice her hair thinning and starts to worry, eventually deciding to wear a hijab. She also visits an Egyptian psychic in South Jersey, who she learns about from her uncle Naseem.

Calamawy's performance in *Ramy* has been well-received, with the series itself garnering acclaim for its portrayal of American Muslims, which deviates from the usual depiction of Muslims as "the bad guys" in Western pop culture.

Her role in Moon Knight

May Calamawy, an Egyptian-Palestinian actor, plays Layla El-Faouly in the Marvel series Moon Knight. Layla is an MCU original character, meaning she has no counterpart in the comics. Layla is an archeologist and adventurer, who is Marc Spector's wife and is aware that he is Moon Knight. Layla is also the temporary avatar of the Egyptian goddess Taweret, the MCU version of Scarlet Scarab.

Calamawy described her character as someone with "a lot of healing to do", who "step [s] into herself more" and "develops more confidence and trust in herself" through supporting Spector. She drew inspiration from Middle Eastern women, who "have a very unassuming, soft strength to them". Calamawy wanted her character's stunts to reflect her personality by being reactionary and not choreographed or clean.

Calamawy's role in Moon Knight is her biggest project yet. She was born in Bahrain, and also raised in Houston and Doha. She is fluent in both Arabic and English.

Her personal life

May Calamawy was born in Bahrain to an Egyptian father and a Palestinian-Jordanian mother. She has an older brother. Calamawy spent her childhood in Bahrain, Doha, Qatar, and Houston, Texas, before moving to Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 17 to study industrial design at her father's request. She speaks English and Arabic fluently.

Calamawy keeps her personal life private and doesn't reveal much information about her daily life. However, she has opened up about her struggle with alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. She was diagnosed at the age of 22, and her condition was incorporated into the storyline of her character, Dena Hassan, in the Hulu series "Ramy" during its second season.

In an interview with Glamour, Calamawy shared that her decision to pursue an acting career was met with hesitation from her family. At the age of 28, she left a comfortable life in Dubai and moved back to the United States to study acting, despite her father's initial wishes for her to become a doctor or lawyer. She applied to Emerson College, telling her parents, "If I get in, I'm going." She was accepted and earned a B.A. in theatre studies.

Calamawy has also studied at the William Esper Studio in New York City. She started her acting career in college and appeared in several short films and TV pilots in Dubai and Abu Dhabi before landing her first major film role in the 2013 horror film "Djinn". She has since starred in various TV shows and films, including The Long Road Home, Madam Secretary, FBI, Moon Knight, and Together Together.

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