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Under the olive-tinted limelight: five actresses of Middle Eastern descent on film and TV representation

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Under the Olive-Tinted Limelight: Five Actresses of Middle Eastern Descent on Film and TV
Representation

Kristin Vartan
Masters of Arts (SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM)
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
August 2019

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Table of Contents:

Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………………….. (Page 2)

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………....(Page 3)

Article: Under the Olive Tinted Limelight……………………………………………….(Page 4)

Bibliography……………………………………………….……………………………(Page 23)

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Abstract:

In interviews with four Hollywood actresses of Middle Eastern heritage (Yasmine Al Massri,
Azita Ghanizada, Alia Shawkat and Nikohl Boosheri) and a producer/writer/director of Middle
Eastern descent (Cherien Dabis) a common theme emerged: By excluding Middle Easterns and
North Africans from the spotlight, a white majority is validated—whether unintentionally or not,
that these minority groups and their stories are not important enough to be in the spotlight. These
women share their stories of dealing with tokenism and discrimination in Hollywood and how
they have been able to be successful in their field despite it. This article cites the anecdotes of
these women in addition to statistics from the Middle Eastern North African Arts Advocacy
Coalition and Annenberg Inclusion Initiative to back up their claims.

Keywords: Hollywood representation, minority representation, Middle Eastern and North
African representation, Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition, film
casting, television casting

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Under the Olive-Tinted Limelight: Five Actresses of Middle Eastern Descent on Film and
TV Representation

Yasmine Al Massri has been a dreamer since she was a little girl, even though her childhood was
a nightmare.

Longtime television fans of Al Massri may be more aware of her successes in prominent
television roles: from playing 18
th
century pirate, Salima El Sharad in NBC’s Crossbones
alongside The Crown’s Claire Foy or Muslim to hijab-clad twins, Nimah and Raina Amin on
ABC’s Quantico. But the actress was born in a civil war—a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon,
surrounded by her ‘clan’ or immediate family of three brothers and sisters, parents, seven uncles,
aunts and 35 cousins (Al Massri 2018).

“When you're born during the civil war and the first 14 years of your life is a civil war, you make
choices of what kind of person you want to be,” said Al Massri. Her voice cracks as she recalls
her own choice as a girl, to engage in “a kind of denial of reality, to be the entertainer…to stand
out in the crowd, to make people laugh, and I guess I was good at it (Al Massri 2018).”

Performing was not a childhood dream for Al Massri—it was a form of salvation through “being
born under the bombs” and “constantly told that this is not your country,” Al Massri said,
reflecting the reality of stateless Palestinians living in Lebanon (Al Massri 2018).

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Al Massri left Lebanon to study multimedia and live performances at L’Ecole de Beaux Arts in
Paris. The promise of a fresh start and a country to truly call home drew her to the artistic city
(Al Massri 2018).

But in Paris, Al Massri built around her a new kind of Arab world: She transformed her Parisian
abode into a dance studio, where her “whole life was about dancing at home,” Al Massri said.
The dance studio-turned-home flourished into an artists’ hub for actors, writers, journalists and
musicians of Arab descent or otherwise (Al Massri 2018).

“My door was always open to anyone passing by,” Al Massri said. “I wanted to recreate home,
and I was able to recreate it in Paris in the most amazing creative way because Paris is the city
where every artist dreamed to be.” In this cultural mecca she met writer and director of her debut
film, Caramel, Nadine Labaki (Al Massri 2018).

Further roles began trickling in after Al Massri played Nisrine in Lebanese film, “Caramel”
because the Middle East people were “boiling” with stories to tell about oppression from their
“governments and social system,” Al Massri said. She went on to do major motion pictures like
Julian Schnabel’s Miral, a film about the 1948 Arab-Israeli war before pivoting into Hollywood
(Al Massri 2018).

The thing was, it was never Al Massri’s “plan” to progress her acting career in Hollywood.
Schnabel flew the young actress at the time to New York when Miral came out. The actress then
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made her way to Los Angeles to visit her husband, then-boyfriend Michael Desante who she was
corresponding with at the time. She never left (Al Massri 2018).

Two decades later, Al Massri sits in a Santa Monica courtyard under a red umbrella in her gray
hoodie, high-waist jeans and snakeskin boots, eating a plate of almonds. Evergreen trees line the
courtyard, creating stencils of sunlight and shade on her face. Now an actress with
prominent television roles on her resume, Al Massri sees another role for herself: to accurately
represent the narratives of people of Middle Eastern descent (Al Massri 2018).

“I think our business attracts the most romantic, idealist people who want to change the world.
We are dreamers, poets (Al Massri 2018).”

In a way, Hollywood for many years has been just as unaccepting of a world to actresses of
Middle Eastern descent as western nations have been towards refugees fleeing worn-torn
countries. There are currently 10 million people of Middle Eastern and North African descent in
the United States, according to Middle Eastern North African Arts Advocacy Coalition’s
(MAAC) 2018 study on Middle Eastern and North African actors in primetime and streaming
television. This number makes up about 3.2 percent of the country’s population. With this in
mind, Middle Eastern and North African actors only made up one percent of series regulars on
popular television shows, in comparison to Caucasians who made up 70 percent of recurring
television show characters, according to the study (Chin, Deo, DuCros Lee, Milman & Yuen
2018).

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The film industry isn’t any more representative. Across 100 movies last year, none of the lead
actresses in those films were of Middle Eastern descent, according to an Annenberg Inclusion
Initiative study (Case, Choi, Choueiti, Pieper & Smith 2018). In interviews with four Hollywood
actresses of Middle Eastern heritage, a common theme emerged: By excluding Middle Easterns
and North Africans from the spotlight, a white majority is validated—whether unintentionally or
not, that these minority groups and their stories are not important enough to be in the spotlight.

The thing about being an actor that irritates the hell out of me, is being dependent on other
people's decisions, “Al Massri said. “I am dependent on a story that somebody else will write to
me and dependent on the director who will take me in a direction, dependent on the producer
who will approve that I am good enough to attract the audience (Al Massri 2018).”

Yet, as Al Massri mentioned, people of Middle Eastern heritage are “boiling” with stories,
because of the trauma embedded within the nations they descend from (Al Massri 2018):

Syria has been in the middle of civil war the last eight years with a casualty of almost 400,000
deaths because of their corrupted government. (BBC News 2019). Palestinians are not only
denied their homeland but are also portrayed as terrorists on the Gaza strip, when there are far
more Palestinian deaths from Hamas’ airstrikes than Israelis (BBC News 2 2019). Iraq is still
suffering from the aftermath of the Iraq War, including half of Baghdad’s populations still living
in slums, (Al Jazeera 2019). Iran, a nation economically dependent on its oil exports, has lost
their main supporter, the U.S. due to the Trump administration’s sanctions on the country. This
tactic does weaken the Islamic republic, which may be the intent, but also the livelihood of the
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country’s citizens (Gilsinan 2019). Egyptian citizens also have no freedom of speech in a
military-controlled government (Nabil 2019).

“Stories about all of these Middle Eastern North African and Southern Asian countries are some
of the most traumatized stories in television and film and yet we have zero voice. It would be
like trying to tell stories about slavery without the input of the African-American Community,”
laments Afghan-American actress Azita Ghanizada. “No seat at the table means no voice
(Ghanizada 2019).”

The lack of representation is troubling to Ghanizada, who has starred in Syfy’s Alphas and
General Hospital: Night Shift. Prior to her career in Hollywood, Ghanizada’s family immigrated
to the United States from Afghanistan to escape the Soviet invasion. They became asylum
seekers under Reagan’s presidency, thanks to family friends who worked at the Pentagon. Their
welcome to the United States was not very benevolent, however (Ghanizada 2019).

“People threw rocks at us and told us to go back to our country and this was right when we
moved into Virginia, and I was too little to understand what that was. My older sister took it very
personally. I thought I was like everyone else until they told me I wasn’t (Ghanizada 2019).”

Like Al Massri, the performing arts became a denial of reality for Ghanizada when she was
younger. The Afghan-American actress grew up with “the most American upbringing,” as a
member of the upper-middle class in a majority-white town in 1980s Virginia (Ghanizada 2019).

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“My candy store was the old Freeman candy store that was built in the Civil War. My running
trail that I would run on was the Washington Old Dominion Trail,” Ghanizada recalled
(Ghanizada 2019).

Back then the southern town was not as diverse as it is today, Ghanizada said. Everyone was
“incredibly blond, there were many farms with horses.” She practically grew up walking on an
American history book: her class trips included the Gettysburg, Smithsonian and Mount Vernon.
She also had a “strong understanding of U.S. politics and history (Ghanizada 2019). But some of
her Caucasian peers, outfitted in the all-American uniform of J. Crew and Gap treated her as un-
American for one specific difference: Ghanizada and her family were immigrants—and not ones
from a western background (Ghanizada 2019).

“It's part of the tapestry of who I am. I didn't ever think it was an issue until other people told me
it was an issue,” Ghanizada said. “I remember I was in maybe first or second or third grade and
somebody asked me if I was an ESL and I didn't know what that was. And I asked, ‘well, what
does that mean?’ They said English as a second language. I said, ‘No, I'm in gifted and talented
(Ghanizada 2019),’”

So gifted and talented, in fact, that “I went on to win every single award [in school]. That was the
seed that made me become an overachiever. That was the seed that made me a bit type A: was to
prove my worth. I won the Daughters of the American Revolution award, the most American
award a girl could ever win!” she exclaimed while leaning forward in her chair. “I won it in the
sixth grade. Because I was going to be like them or better (Ghanizada 2019).”
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Ghanizada still refuses to back down from a challenge. That is how she managed to lobby SAG-
AFTRA to add a Middle Eastern and North African category to their contracts and create more
opportunities for actors of Middle Eastern and North African descent. After all—it was her
childhood dream to become an actress too (Ghanizada 2019).

Ghanizada grew up in a strict, Muslim home—unable to wear skirts or participate in sports like
the rest of her schoolmates. But the most American thing in her household: the television shows
her family watched (Ghanizada 2019). American television—anything from I Love Lucy to
Three’s A Company was how the multi-lingual actress who could speak Dari (an Afghan dialect
of Farsi) and would hear Hindu, Urdu and Pashto in her household as well, first learned how to
speak English (Ghanizada 2019).

Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat had a slightly different upbringing, as the backdrop of her
childhood was the entertainment industry. She decided at six years old after watching
Nickelodeon show, All That that acting was ‘all’ she wanted to do (Shawkat 2019).

Shawkat, whose big break was long-running Fox sitcom Arrested Development (2003-2019) was
born of an Irish-Sicilian mother and Iraqi father. The freckles came from her mother, the black-
coiled curls, her father. The latter characteristics entangled her in casting denials at the beginning
of her career (Shawkat 2019).

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“I would straighten my hair for auditions when I was younger. I would do highlights, all these
things to make myself look more Anglo. Like truly,” Shawkat said. “I remember when I was
young, at the very beginning -- I started acting when I was nine, my mom sent out headshots, and
the response was that I was too ethnic because I had dark curly hair and my eyes were big
(Shawkat 2019).”

Shawkat’s first big role was alongside George Clooney in David O. Russell’s Three Kings
(1999), a film about the effects of the Persian Gulf War (Shawkat 2019). The actress thought it
was ironic that she spent three months speaking Arabic in her “first gig” only to spend the next
sixteen years playing the “normal, sassy teenager,” Maeby Funke, a character with no ethnic
backstory. But by her twenties, she said her storytelling priorities as an actress changed, she said
(Shawkat 2019).

“I didn’t want to just be this pretty actress who lightens my hair and covers my freckles and loses
20 pounds anymore. It felt really wrong to me, and I wasn't getting hired for those (mainstream)
parts [anymore] because I wasn't that kind of person,” she said. I had to redevelop the kind of
projects I wanted to do and naturally, it's brought me to different places working with people
who know about my family history or telling stories about Arabs (Shawkat 2019).”

Two such films were independent projects directed by Palestinian
producer/director/writer/actress, Cherien Dabis (who has also written episodes for the first
season of Quantico and co-produced Fox’s Emmy-winning show Empire). May in the Summer
(2013), is about a successful author who visits her Christian family in Jordan before marrying a
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Muslim man. Shawkat plays May’s sister, Dalia. Dabis’ other film, Amreeka (2009) tells the
story of a Palestinian Christian woman who immigrates to Indiana, U.S. with her teenage son.
These two films represent a different narrative about women of Middle Eastern descent that are
often untold in mainstream motion pictures and television shows (Dabis 2019).

“There has been so much Islamophobia [in the U.S.] against Middle Eastern people whether
they're Muslim or not, by the way. There is islamophobia against Middle Eastern people and
those who look Middle Eastern. I feel like a lot of our representation in mainstream film or
television ends up being Arab-Muslim because people are maybe trying to right a wrong,” Dabis
said about tokenism in television and film (Dabis 2019). “Except that so often, they get it wrong.
There's been so much representation, but I just feel like there's so much exploitation of the
politics of our region, and that's the part that really bums me out (Dabis 2019).”

Ninety percent of the television shows the Middle Eastern North African Arts Advocacy
Coalition analyzed featured only one Middle Eastern and/or North African character. This
“increases the potential of tokenization within the show context,” making television consumers
believe that there is only one type of Middle Eastern woman (Chin, Deo, DuCros Lee, Milman &
Yuen 2018).

“Every human has all these different facets to them, and this industry sadly keeps telling us
there's only a couple,” Shawkat said (Shawkat 2019).

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Ghanizada, who characteristically has played unracialized, mainstream roles, began to have a
difficult time getting jobs that weren’t rooted in a stereotyped identity of her roots: wearing a
hijab, speaking Arabic or with a thick accent (Ghanizada 2019).

"I became very confused, and a part of that was because unless we were racialized or fetishized
on-screen, they didn't understand our identity,” Ghanizada pointed out. “There was an increasing
image of women in headscarves and terrorists and tyrants and buffoons and there was a decrease
in the [mainstream] roles I used to play (Ghanizada 2019).”

Ghanizada’s mention of hijab-wearing tokenism is evident in the majority of Middle Eastern
female roles on screen today: Quantico’s Nimah and Raina Anwar (Al Massri), The Bold Type’s
Adena El Amin (Boosheri), and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan’s Hanin (Dina Shihabi) to name a few.
These depictions fail to reflect that not all Middle Easterns are Muslim and not all Muslim
women wear a hijab.

“People all my life have always ask me what I was, like I was this sort of confusing puzzle. My
dad is from Iraq, but they would think Iranian and Iraqis are the same thing, and you're like, no,
they are very different. They had a huge war, actually,” Shawkat said. “And then the idea that
you're Muslim. Even though my dad was raised Muslim, there are Middle Eastern Christians and
Jews, you know? The assumptions people would make were pretty fast (Shawkat 2019).”

Al Massri believes that ‘Quantico’ may have prompted other shows into “wanting a hijab-
wearing woman on every show,” but even if they are positive portrayals like Nimah and Raina in
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Quantico, or Special Agent Fatima Namazi on NCIS Los Angeles, they raise the prospect of
tokenism (Al Massri 2018).

“I think we are going to go through this for a while. I am more curious about what's going to
happen after that,” Al Massri said. “Once we are done doing politics because… I wish I can go
fast forward and get to the time when we're having fun telling the stories, amazing stories with
real international content, where the characters are foreigners or international or ethnic because
of the story and not because we have to do that (Al Massri).”

Nikohl Boosheri is one of those women that does not fit into the tokenized box. The Bold Type
actress sat on a white table in the nook of her West Hollywood home, drinking a homemade
matcha latte while recalling her experiences in the film/television industry. Between sips, she
played with a gold necklace at her throat that unmistakably resembled the Virgin Mary. Boosheri
was born to a Christian mother who converted to Islam—but the actress herself does not
subscribe to any religion (Boosheri 2019)—and yet she wears a Catholic symbol around her
neck…She is a walking paradox to the tokenistic depictions of women of Middle Eastern
descent.

“I think that there's beauty and similarities to most major religions. I don't understand why
people fight about the details. Overall, we can agree that there is a God. Why do we need to fight
and start wars over the details?” she said regarding her approach to religion (Boosheri 2019).

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While she was able to make it through the door onto a network television show, Freeform’s The
Bold Type, Boosheri did not get the role of one of the frontrunners that she auditioned for, Sutton
Brady (Meghann Fahy), but hijab-clad recurring character, Adena (Boosheri 2019).

That did not stop her from breaking the stereotypes through her character’s portrayal onscreen.
Boosheri recalls being handed the script for The Bold Type’s debut season and not being
comfortable with some of the characteristics given to Adena—a lesbian, Muslim photographer
who dates one of the show regulars, Kat Edison (Aisha Dee) (Boosheri 2019).

“Usually you're with people who really have the best intentions even if they don't always get it,
right,” Boosheri said “They're not Middle Eastern. They're not this character. It’s harder when
you're dealing with a network and you're fighting with a network, but when they see it, they let
me go with it. There were a few character line changes. The process was very collaborative, and
I always have had Aisha on my side as well (Boosheri 2019).”

Fans of The Bold Type may be familiar with Adena’s penchant for fashion and tendency to cover
her thick black locks with stylish turbans or loosely draped fabrics than a full headdress—but
without Boosheri’s input, Adena would have worn the hijab the traditional way. Boosheri said
that as someone of Iranian descent and with a mother who lived in Iran during and post-
revolution, she had grown up with the notion that the hijab is “a sign of repression and control.”
This notion stemmed from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s requirement for women to wear the
religious headdress. Boosheri managed to “put aside my own prejudice of the hijab” and worked
with the wardrobe department to detokenize Adena’s look on the show. The inspiration for her
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character paralleled a real-life Muslim, lesbian photographer who also took pictures of
homosexual Muslim women around Canada (Boosheri 2019).

“Some of them wore a hijab and some of them didn't. Some of them had tattoos….I thought,
well, maybe Adena doesn't wear the hijab traditionally [either]. How can we make this fun?
Maybe, [the hijab] is more a part of her identity, a way that she expresses herself as an artist and
fashion icon, and fashion is a part of the show as well,” Boosheri explained. “She has tattoos and
I asked, ‘can we not cover my tattoos?’ When she's in the Middle East she doesn't quite fit in
there, and when she's in America, she doesn't quite fit in there, but she likes it that way (Boosheri
2019).”

Like Boosheri, Al Massri had a heavy influence in her character’s depiction on screen. While a
part of Quantico, she was involved in every level of the process in the portrayal of the Arab
twins she played on camera: from the very words of her script to how the lines were delivered,
thanks to the open minds and collaborative sensibilities of the Quantico director, Joshua Safran
and the show’s writers, Al Massri said (Al Massri, 2018).

“I didn't sleep properly, I didn't eat properly. I was a mess because I would never forgive myself
if Nimah and Raina would have been manipulated by any narrative cliché, so I was like a soldier,
like police playing the police on Quantico,” Al Massri explained with the utmost passion. “So I
read every line, I read every word. I checked every story. I checked every reference (Al Massri
2018)”

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Writers hold the power of the story. All four actresses interviewed believe more women of
Middle Eastern descent will have opportunity in the entertainment industry if those in the
director and producer’s chairs and in the writers’ rooms also represent that heritage.

The showrunner [of Quantico] was very clear with me from the beginning that the Arab is not
going to be terrorist, and I was like 'good because I wouldn't take the job if they were,'” Dabis
said. She speaks as a Palestinian-American director in Quantico’s writer’s room. “And he
(Safran) said, 'I want you to make sure that we protect those characters.' It was lovely because he
hired me to really create authentic Middle Eastern characters and ensuring that those characters
do not fall into stereotypes. Entertainment starts from its inception (Dabis 2019).”

Boosheri herself said that the only reason she was called to read for the part of Adena on The
Bold Type was because of her former director on Farah Goes Bang, Meena Menon. Menon was
called in to possibly direct the pilot episode of The Bold Type and put the star of her Tribeca
Film Festival-winning film on the shortlist to play one of the show’s forerunners Sutton
(Boosheri 2019).

“Listen, when you're going in for an audition and you're sitting in the audition room with a room
full of beautiful, Caucasian blond women and you're like, I'm never going to get this part, or not
even getting to the opportunity to audition for so many parts because they just are probably going
to cast a Caucasian person,” Boosheri said (Boosheri 2019).

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Some actresses of Middle Eastern descent like Shawkat and Ghanizada have been able to surpass
the stereotypes and play non-racial focused roles. When asked why they have been able to
overcome this, both said it was because of their “racially ambiguous features.”

Rather than hiding behind their less identifiable features, Shawkat and Ghanizada have decided
to use their position in mainstream television roles to shine a more positive, authentic light on a
woman of Middle Eastern descent. For example, Ghanizada would ask writers if she could make
her “girl next door, doctor, or professor” roles reflect a Middle Eastern, North African or
Southern Asian heritage: giving the character traits like speaking Farsi or Dari or giving that
character a Middle Eastern last name (Ghanizada 2019).

“We’ve never really harped on or racialized any of those characters as Muslim either, or
rationalized the religion. We didn't have to tokenize me as a religious person,” Ghanizada said.
“We played what the human character with the human story is for everybody on TV: someone
with family, love, success, relationships and work issues (Ghanizada 2019)”

But even more so than amending narratives on the inside, Ghanizada and Shawkat are using their
prominence as actresses to change the industry from casting to production.

With the Middle Eastern and North African Arts Advocacy Coalition, Ghanizada lobbied to have
Middle Eastern and North African added as a diversity category in SAG-AFTRA contracts
through a memorandum of contract, Ghanizada said. The SAG-AFTRA – AMPTP TV (Alliance
of Motion Picture and Television Producers) and Theatrical Agreement came to pass after a long
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journey of consulting with a variety of television networks to educate them on Middle Eastern
and North African descent and actors of their heritage. In late 2015, early 2016, the actress
gathered diversity data in film and television along with FBI statistics concerning the “94 percent
uptick in hate crimes toward people of Middle Eastern descent in America,” she said (Ghanizada
2019).

“Nobody presented it nobody knew how to come into it. Everyone saw it as another really
daunting overwhelming task,” Ghanizada explained about why it took 37 years for this new
diversity category to be introduced. “Those things are sensitive, and if we don't do them while
we continue to erase the truth, we continue to erase identities and historical facts by being told by
someone's fun research on Google. And I knew that had to change and so did the producers and
the members at SAG-AFTRA (Ghanizada 2019).”

Shawkat has used her prominence as a longtime sitcom star to pave the way for Middle Eastern
filmmakers who can portray the authentic narratives of people of that heritage. The actress spent
time in Palestine while filming May in The Summer with Dabis. She met another Palestinian
filmmaker who is holding labs for aspiring young filmmakers in the country. This is just one
example of the people she continues to support (Shawkat 2019).

“I'm introducing him to people in the industry and trying to get their stuff produced,” Shawkat
said. “Things like that, that are as simple as my putting my name onto something or introducing
someone (Shawkat 2019).

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She also has been encouraging her inner filmmaker, producing projects like Tribeca Film
Festival-winning film Duck Butter (which she also co-wrote) and television series, Search Party
(Shawkat 2019).

“Acting is all I've ever done: It was a decision I made when I was just nine years old, and it's
been affecting my life ever since. There's been times when I've questioned whether I want to do
it or not. And I've had to reinvigorate myself and realize how much I want to do it or what kind
of work I want to do,” Shawkat said. “It's not about waiting for a phone call. It's about making
the phone call. I get to decide the kind of stuff I take on or writing things, not feeling as helpless
to the system (Shawkat 2019)”

Producing Search Party gave Shawkat the opportunity to normalize on television a multi-
dimensional character who happens to be of Middle Eastern descent, she said. One example is
how protagonist Dory Sief (Shawkat) in the third season of the show introduces the audience to
her Iraqi-immigrant parents (Shawkat 2019).

“[I want] to show these different stories so that by the time 10 years from now actually getting to
the subtleties like the story of the white Caucasian person. They get to tell different, distinct
stores. We already know where they're coming from, whereas we [Middle Easterns] have to start
with basic stories now because I have to explain that this is how I have dinner with my family
because that is new to the audience,” Shawkat said (Shawkat 2019).

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This is unlike past ‘ethnic roles’ where she was just known as the “funny best-friend” and
“sidekick” on a sitcom she did before Arrested Development, State of Grace (2001-2004). In the
past, you never went home with the family of the [ethnic] best friend, she said.

Al Massri has moved on from ABC’s Quantico and is currently filming for ‘Juliet,” a movie
about an astrophysicist who attempts to reacclimate into society a year following her husband’s
death. This is a story she also believes in enough to indie-produce herself alongside director
Bandar Albuliwi, whose credits include Peace After Marriage.

“This industry has no f*king idea what's coming,” Al Massri said about a new age of diversity in
film and television—specifically for actors of Middle Eastern descent. “I don't mean to blame
them. I mean to say we have a lot of work to do. It's our responsibility to ask for the opportunity
to be heard in the most humble and kind and inclusive and embracing way because everyone's
stories have the right for empathy and platforms. So, you cannot also be superior. You cannot,
not have the right attitude. People have to love you before they love your story, (Al Massri
2018).”

But the actress-turned-producer wants to do more than just produce a narrative that she resonates
with, she wants to write one into existence someday. As she leaned forward in the metal chair in
the courtyard of her Santa Monica abode, resting her elbows on the table next to the almonds she
was eating earlier, she declared that she is not willing to wait for Hollywood to tell her story
right (Al Massri 2018).

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“I know there are many people at this moment sitting in coffee shops writing those stories that
you and I are talking about,” Al Massri said. “But I have reached that level where I know my
platform is not going to make sense if I'm sitting on my ass waiting for that script to happen or
waiting for that script to get money to be produced. I need to be the storyteller, and I'm working
on that. It's our generation. There is nobody in front of us and there is everybody behind us (Al
Massri 2019)”

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Bibliography

Al Jazeera. April 13, 2019. Growing Slums and Misery in Iraq’s Sadr City. Al Jazeera.

Al Massri, Yasmine. December 12, 2018. Yasmine Al Massri Interview with Kristin Vartan.

BBC News. February 25, 2019. Why is There a War with Syria? BBC News.

BBC News 2. May 6, 2019. Gaza Conflict: ‘Ceasefire’ After Days of Violence. BBC News.

Boosheri, Nikohl. February 8, 2019. Nikohl Boosheri Interview with Kristin Vartan.

Case, Ariana, Choi, Angel, Choueiti, Dr. Marc, Pieper, Katherine & Smith, Dr. Stacy L., July
2018. Inequality in 1,100 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender,
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Tyrants: Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Actors in Prime Time and Streaming
Television. MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition.

Dabis, Cherien. April 25, 2019. Cherien Dabis Phone Interview with Kristin Vartan.

Vartan

24
Ghanizada, Azita. January 23, 2019. Azita Ghanizada Interview with Kristin Vartan.

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Nabil, Sally. April 20, 2019. Egypt Referendum. Voters Urged Back Extended Sisi Term. BBC
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Shawkat, Alia. March 16, 2019. Alia Shawkat Interview with Kristin Vartan.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract In interviews with four Hollywood actresses of Middle Eastern heritage (Yasmine Al Massri, Azita Ghanizada, Alia Shawkat and Nikohl Boosheri) and a producer/writer/director of Middle Eastern descent (Cherien Dabis) a common theme emerged: By excluding Middle Easterns and North Africans from the spotlight, a white majority is validated—whether unintentionally or not, that these minority groups and their stories are not important enough to be in the spotlight. These women share their stories of dealing with tokenism and discrimination in Hollywood and how they have been able to be successful in their field despite it. This article cites the anecdotes of these women in addition to statistics from the Middle Eastern North African Arts Advocacy Coalition and Annenberg Inclusion Initiative to back up their claims.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Vartan, Kristin Chelby (author)

Core Title Under the olive-tinted limelight: five actresses of Middle Eastern descent on film and TV representation

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism

Publication Date 07/28/2019

Defense Date 07/24/2019

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Annenberg Inclusion Initiative,film casting,Hollywood representation,MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition,Middle Eastern and North African representation,minority representation,OAI-PMH Harvest,television casting

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Tolan, Sandy (committee chair), Murphy, Mary (committee member), Parks, Michael (committee member)

Creator Email kvartan@usc.edu,kvartan2911@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-195751

Unique identifier UC11663530

Identifier etd-VartanKris-7656.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-195751 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-VartanKris-7656.pdf

Dmrecord 195751

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Vartan, Kristin Chelby

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA