Ahd Hassan Kamel ( ar, عهد حسن كامل) is an actress and filmmaker from

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. She is known for her role in the BAFTA-nominated film, ''

Wadjda ''Wadjda'' ( ar, وجدة, translit=Wajda, ) is a 2012 Saudi Arabian drama film, written and directed by Haifaa al-Mansour (in her feature directorial debut). It was the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first feature-lengt ...

(2014)'' and for her role as ''Fatima'' in

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

Collateral Collateral may refer to: Business and finance * Collateral (finance), a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan * Marketing collateral, in marketing and sales Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Collate ...

(2018).

Education and early career

Kamel grew up in Saudi Arabia and moved to New York City in 1998. She received a BFA in Animation & Communication from

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

in 2004 and a Directing degree from the

New York Film Academy New York Film Academy – School of Film and Acting (NYFA) is a private for-profit film school and acting school based in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. The New York Film Academy was founded in 1992 by Jerry Sherlock, a former film, t ...

in 2005. Kamel then went on to study acting under the personal tutelage of William Esper at the

William Esper Studio The William Esper Studio was founded in 1965 as a school for the performing arts in Manhattan, New York. The school is dedicated to the acting technique of Sanford Meisner. Its founder, William "Bill" Esper, is often referred to as the best-known o ...

. Kamel has written, directed and acted in her two award-winning short films, ''The Shoemaker'' ‘Al-Gondorji’ (2009) and ''Sanctity'' ‘Hurma’ (2012). The themes of these films explore women issues in Saudi Ar