The name of Mena Massoud became known to most viewers after the release of the trailer for the movie remake of the cult cartoon "Aladdin". However, this is not the first work of a rising star. Prior to that, he had already shown what he was capable of, starring in such series as "In the Hope of Salvation", "Nikita", "Jack Ryan".
Biography of Mena Massoud
Mena Massoud was born on September 17, 1991 in the city of Cairo, Egypt. When the boy was three years old, his family emigrated to Canada. Mena grew up in Markham, near Toronto, Ontario.
Even as a teenager, Menou decided that he would become an actor, but his parents did not immediately believe that this was his calling. After graduating from high school, Menou entered the University of Toronto with a degree in neuroscience, but his adolescent dream continued to beckon him. In the end, Mena's parents supported him and he dropped out of one university to go to another. This time, Menou went to Ryerson University, where he had an acting department, which he graduated with a bachelor's degree.
As Massoud himself says, there are a lot of worthy people in the Egyptian-Canadian community who have become engineers, doctors, scientists, but he decided that this was not his way.
What roles did Mena Massoud star in?
The main difficulty in Masoud's career is the lack of large roles for people, such as his ethnic origin, in the scripts. “I cannot fight for the roles of Europeans, African Americans, Asians, even if these characters are close to me and attract me,” the actor regrets. It is no coincidence that one of the first appearances of Massoud on the screen was the small role of an al-Qaeda fighter in the series Nikita.
The debut was followed by a number of other roles, from episodic to recurring, mostly in Canadian television series. So Massoud played Jared Malik, the head of the volunteers from the hospital "Open Heart" in the eponymous youth television series. He can be seen in one episode of the series "In the Hope of Salvation", as well as in one of the episodes of the Canadian television show "King".
Massoud also starred in the animated series 99, based on the comic book series of the same name. However, the main idea of the comics - that ordinary people master superpowers, having at their disposal one of 99 stones, each of which is endowed with one of the powers of Allah - did not find approval from the supreme muftis and the series was not released.
Massoud attracted public attention when he played Tarek Kassar in the series “Jack Ryan” based on the novels by Tom Clancy. Massoud's character is a dapper and ironic colleague of the protagonist who also works as an analyst for the CIA.
Mena Massoud as Aladdin
In October 2016, Disney announced its decision to release a film adaptation of the 1992 musical animated film Aladdin. The remake was produced by Dan Lin and directed by Guy Ricci. The two have already worked together, releasing high-grossing films such as Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Play of Shadows on the big screen. The studio had no doubts that the work of this duo would lead to the creation of another masterpiece. Disney called the project "unconventional and ambitious," but promised fans that all the magic of the original cartoon, all the music, would be preserved.
It is not surprising that the casting for the role of the main character was given great importance. It was already known that Will Smith would star in the role of the genie, two actresses had already been decided from which Jasmine was to be chosen, and Aladdin was still not found. In May 2017, Disney announced the postponement of the film's premiere, since they could not find an actor for the role of a charming street kid. What was the difficulty?
For the role of Aladdin, it was necessary to find a young man of Indian or Middle Eastern descent, a professional actor, fluent in English, at the same time able to sing and dance. The studio tried for the role of the English actor Dev Patel, known to the public for his role in the TV series "Skins", the British rapper Rizwan Ahmed, aka Riz MC, the American actor Georg Kosturus, who played the main role in the film "American Wrestler: The Wizard" and the Dutch actor Achraf Kutet … Another contender for the role was Mena Massoud.
After four months of casting, rumors that the producers had returned to watching the original auditions of all applicants, the choice was finally announced at the Disney D23 Expo Fan Conference. Mena Massoud is invited to the role of Aladdin, and the role of Princess Jasmine will be played by British actress and singer Naomi Scott.
Filming began on September 6, 2017 and ended on January 24, 2018. They took place in studio pavilions in England and in the Jordanian desert of Wadi Rum. The studio presented the first trailer for the film on February 10, 2019 at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
Mena Massoud. New roles
The role of Aladdin became a springboard in the career of Mena Massoud. Even before the release of the film on the screens, he had already been invited to a whole galaxy of new projects. This is a noir thriller Strange But True and another sci-fi thriller Warning.
In March 2019, the world premiere of the Canadian-American drama Run This Town took place. The film is based on real events and tells about the famous scandal with Rob Ford, who was the mayor of Toronto for a long time. The most popular actor Damian Lewis starred in the film, the roles of the mayor's assistants went to Nina Dobrev and Mena Massoud.
In the fall of 2019, the series Reprisal is scheduled to launch, about a woman seeking revenge on an auto gang that once doomed her to death. In this TV show, Massoud also got one of the main roles.
Mena Massoud. Personal life
Mena Massoud is not married and the press has not yet managed to catch him off guard with any beauty. On the actor's Instagram, there was also no place for romantic pictures. Mena himself says that he is still too passionate about his career and does not agree to fleeting romances. And this is not a pose, because the actor is a person brought up in the Christian faith from childhood. It belongs to the Coptic Orthodox Church, which dates back to the days of the Roman Empire.
Massoud is a vegetarian. Moreover, he is funding the Evolving Vegan campaign. Together with members of this organization, Mena travels to cities in the USA and Canada, visits vegan establishments, talks with restaurateurs and chefs to collect a book on vegan lifestyle that will tell about how simple, fun and fashionable it is to be a vegan.
