Egyptian-Palestinian actress joins cast of Disney’s ‘Moon Knight’ series
May Calamawy is the latest star to be announced for the cast of Moon Knight by Disney+.
Set to star opposite Oscar Isaac in the Marvel comic book adaptation, Calamawy is perhaps best known for her role in hit comedy Ramy.
Details of the Egyptian-Palestinian actress’s exact role are yet to be announced – she is currently the only other cast member to be listed on the Moon Knight IMDb page, alongside Isaac.
Calamawy is not the only Egyptian talent to be attached to the project, either. Mohamed Diab, writer of 2016 film Clash is set to direct the six-part series, along with Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson. Filming is scheduled to start in Budapest in March.
The actress is the daughter of an Egyptian father and Jordanian-Palestinian mother. She was born in Bahrain and raised in the Gulf country, as well as in Houston, Texas. Calamawy now splits her time living in New York and Los Angeles.
She starred in Emmy-winning series Ramy, created by Ari Katcher, Ryan Welch and Ramy Youssef, as Dena Hassan, the sister of the titular character. She also starred in Dean Georgaris’s TV series The Brave and mini-series The Long Road Home, created by Mikko Alanne.
In November, Calamawy spoke to Harper’s Bazaar
Arabia about her family and upbringing.
“When I was 27 and leaving Dubai to study acting, my dad and my brother were so worried. They would say, ‘Why? You’re at an age when all your friends are getting married.’ And I really tried.
“After my mum passed away, I tried to do the ‘right’ thing, find the ‘right’ man and start a family … but I just felt dead inside. I didn’t feel like myself, and I was asking, ‘What is that? I’m just not listening to my true calling,’” she said.
She has also spoken about writing for and about Arab women, while avoiding the pitfalls of being typecast. “There are so many stories [about Arab women] that need to be told, but for some reason we get put into one box,” she told Harper’s Bazaar Arabia.
The subject of her latest venture, Moon Knight, has taken on many different personas and aliases over the years, after the character was first introduced in the comic Werewolf by Night #32 in August 1975, created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin.
In the comics, Marc Spector is a former boxer, CIA agent and mercenary. When he and his employer, Raoul Bushman, come across an archaeological dig that Bushman wants to loot, Spector tries to stop him, but is attacked and left for dead by his employer.
Minutes from death, he is approached by the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, who offers him a second chance at life in exchange for becoming his avatar on Earth.
Resurrected and with new superhuman abilities, he returns to the US and invests the money he made as a mercenary to make his fortune and becomes the crime-fighting Moon Knight. His additional identities include that of millionaire Steven Grant and taxi driver Jake Lockley.
There are so many stories [about Arab women] that need to be told, but for some reason we get put into one box