The casting director
When Laila Almaeena is asked where she is from, her response is always the same: “I’m from Saudi Arabia but I’m also from the UAE.”
The founder of LA Coaching and Consulting, a UAE media production company, was born to a Saudi father and an American mother. She considers the UAE her home.
“My friends are here, my growth and experiences have been here,” Laila says. “Dubai has been such a beautiful blend of ethnicity, of culture and experiences that really fit with who I am as a person.”
She moved to Dubai from the US in 2014.
“I chose Dubai because it seemed to me to be the land of opportunity. They always say that the US is the land of opportunity but actually, no, it is the UAE. It is open to every type of idea, every kind of experience you can imagine and that was very attractive to me because that is what I wanted and who I was.
“I wanted to be able to talk to and meet different cultures and ethnicities – to be friends with them and understand how beautiful we are, not our differences but our similarities.” Like others who made the move, Laila does not feel homesick.
“The beautiful thing is that I’m only two hours away from Jeddah,” she says. Similarities in the cultures help keep homesickness at bay.
“They are almost identical,” Laila says. “The identity, the culture, the integrity … we are very similar. I see Saudi Arabia going in a beautiful direction and if we continue this way there’ll be no limits to what we can achieve in all sectors.”
She says she will celebrate National Day in the UAE.
“I love to see how Emiratis have embraced Saudi Arabia so much,” Laila says. “When I’m here it feels like we are brothers and sisters. Thank you for valuing me.
“Thank you for seeing me as your sister. You’ve made me feel at home.”