Lewis Alsamari (born 1976) is an Iraqi actor based in the United Kingdom.

Career

Alsamari has appeared in episodes of television series such as '' Spooks'' and ''

Crossroads Crossroads, crossroad, cross road or similar may refer to: * Crossroads (junction), where four roads meet Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a 1930 Brit ...

''. In 2006 he starred in the

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

film '' United 93'' as the terrorist

Saeed al-Ghamdi Saeed Abdallah Ali Sulayman al-Ghamdi ( ar, سعيد الغامدي, ) (November 21, 1979 – September 11, 2001) was one of four terrorist hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93 as part of the September 11 attacks. Born in Saudi Arabia, al-Gha ...

. Alsamari was reported to have been denied a

visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

by American immigration authorities when he applied to visit

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to attend the premiere of ''United 93''. The reason reportedly given was that he had once been a

conscripted Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

member of the

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the coup ...

– although this was also the grounds for his refugee status after his

desertion Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which ar ...

in 1993. Other sources say that he applied late for his visa and that it was not denied. Alsamari was featured in the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

Fringe production of "What I Heard About Iraq", based on the

Eliot Weinberger Eliot Weinberger (born 6 February 1949 in New York City) is a contemporary American literature, American writer, essayist, editing, editor, and translation, translator. He is primarily known for his literary writings (essays) and political articles ...

article of the same name that originally appeared in the London Review of Books in 2005.Samarrai's Website

Filmography

Bibliography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alsamari, Lewis 1976 births Living people British people of Iraqi descent English male film actors English male stage actors Iraqi male television actors Iraqi refugees Iraqi emigrants to the United Kingdom Iraqi male film actors