Anyone who knows Amira Adeeb, the content creator turned actress, would be surprised at how she appears on screen as a ferocious princess. In real life, she is a sweet and spontaneous human being who is exceedingly passionate about what she does. She is also a great inspiration to her many followers on social media, as she is the first content creator to make merch in Egypt. eniGma’s Farida Elserty got to chat with the rising star about her unusual journey to success and the challenges she faced along the way.
Coming from a highly artistic family, the charming Adeeb has always dreamed of becoming an actress and entertainer somehow. Nevertheless, the young star paved her way to fame all on her own, through her natural talent and hard work. “Even before I knew what my parents did for a living, I always loved acting. To be honest, my parents always tried to keep me away from the industry,” she explains.
As she grew older, her parents would allow her to accompany them to their work, and this cemented her love for acting. “I used to go to the theatre with my mom and watch her shine on stage in important plays like King Lear. I also used to go to movie sets with my father. I learned many things about acting and directing at that time, which made me love the industry even more,” she adds exuberantly.
When it was time to choose her major in university, Adeeb decided to study what she loved, namely acting and directing. Unfortunately, she had lots of fights with her parents about this major, but she was very persistent. “It took me from sophomore to senior year to convince them to study Television, Film & Media as a major, and Acting & Psychology, as a minor, at California State University, Los Angeles. Finally, they caved in the end because I am stubborn,” she says proudly.
In LA, she also attended workshops in acting, cinematography, scriptwriting, directing, and so on. “Besides university, I decided to learn more about the profession on my own because my family promised not to help, which was something I did not want, regardless,” she recalls. She also started looking for agents in LA to help. Happily, she started working as an assistant director on advertisements and music videos. Working on set helped her understand many things about the industry, and her interest in acting grew even more.
Before rising to fame as a professional actress, Adeeb started her journey as a content creator, long before this was even a thing. “I genuinely do not know why this idea came to my mind, but I thought this may help me start acting,” she says. But it was not an easy thing to do since she did not know a lot about content creation when she started. “I decided to learn more about editing, so I enrolled in editing and filming classes at university,” she adds. Her spontaneous personality, unique sense of humour, and cheerful vibes made her one of the most watched content creators of her age, and this helped make her dream of becoming an actress come true.
Adeeb became so good at content creation, and it became her newfound love. “I started content creation with hopes of being an actress, but I loved it a lot when I learnt more about it. Now that I think about it, I can see that content creation is a new way of documenting my life, like a memory book for my children,” she exclaims.
Adeeb is known to speak her mind on social media (and elsewhere) about societal issues, especially misconceptions about mental health. She is one of the first content creators who challenged social and cultural norms by speaking loudly about mental health problems. Fortunately, her video on ADHD inspired an entire generation to broach the topic of mental health openly. “I am happy that I was one of the first content creators to encourage people to accept themselves, their looks, their realities, and their identities,” she exclaims. To this day, addressing mental health issues continues to be extremely important to Adeeb. She even prints genuine messages that encourage human connections and interpersonal skills on hoodies she produces for her clothing brand @shopbyamiraadeeb.
Adeeb reveals that her lifelong passion for acting, dancing, and performing started with watching different Egyptian and international romcoms as she was growing up. “When I was young, my hobby was memorising monologues and dances from my favourite movies and performing them for my family. I really loved doing that. Mona Zaki’s Africano and Jennifer Garner’s 13 Going on 30, are some of the movies I liked growing up. I always wanted to be an actress to make movies like these,” she says, adding, “I love these movies because they have strong female ensemble casts, unlike most of the movies where females only play supporting roles.”
It was therefore only natural that the aspiring actress would eventually end up realizing her dream. After going to many auditions, she finally landed her first role, as Nadia, in the critically acclaimed WatchIt series, Tahqeeq (Investigation) by Mohamed Fathy (Shank), which aired on TV in 2022. After that, she landed one role after another, in several TV series, including Welad Nas (Well Bred) in 2021 and Naql A’am (Public Transport) in 2022, where she stars alongside the legend, Mahmoud Hemeida, and a star-studded cast. These successful roles proved she was a multi-talented actress and her fan base grew exponentially.
One of Adeeb’s favourite roles was Salma in the Ramadan drama series Men Qal?! (Who Said?!), starring Jamal Soliman and Ahmed Dash. Because Salma resembles her own persona in many ways, she found the role particularly challenging. “I did not want people to watch the series and feel that Salma is actually Amira, because people knew me very well from my videos,” she says.
Even though her career was doing well, it was not good enough for Adeeb. She was still studying at university, and she decided to take acting workshops to improve her skills even more. Known for her outstanding dancing skills as well, it made sense for her to join dancing classes and participate in performances throughout her university years. “I think my love for dance started when High School Musical was released in 2006. I used to get their CDs, and I would just follow their dances and try to perform them,” she recalls.
While appreciative of her newfound fame, Adeeb admits that she finds it hard at times. “Being yourself at your job is confusing mentally because I do not know exactly when my day job ends or when it starts. I had to learn it the hard way after many breakdowns,” she laments. “Amira Adeeb the actress, content creator, and businesswoman is someone, and Amira Adeeb is someone else. Nonetheless, they still collaborate in their values, morals, emotions, and ethics,” she adds.
So how does Adeeb see herself? She explains that she is a person who is consistently trying to enjoy life while feeling content with everything, adding, “My aim is not for people to remember me as a legendary actress, although if this happens, then it would mean that I was good at my job, thank God! I want to be remembered as a person who used her privilege to help voiceless people through good works. My ambitions are boundless. I want to write my show. I want to act. I want to produce. I want to direct. I want to influence people’s lives. I want everything. But, my main goal is to feel content about whatever I do in life.”
Adeeb’s fans will be happy to know that she is working on a new series on YouTube this month. “I am so excited about this upcoming project, and I hope everyone likes it,” she says in conclusion.
Creative & Styling: Abo Kamar
Makeup Artist: Reham Khalifa
Hairstylist: Mina Mounir
Photography: Hassan Radwany
