Omar Sharif Jr. (born 28 November 1983) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

actor, model, author and gay activist who currently lives in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Early life

Sharif is the son of a Jewish Canadian mother, Debbie, and an Egyptian father, Tarek Sharif. His paternal grandparents were

Omar Sharif Omar Sharif ( ar, عمر الشريف ; born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub , 10 April 193210 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country's greatest male film stars. He began his career in his native country in the ...

and

Faten Hamama Faten Ahmed Hamama ( ar, فاتن حمامه ; 27 May 1931 – 17 January 2015) was an Egyptian film and television actress and film producer. She was the first wife of Ezz El-Dine Zulficar. She made her screen debut in 1939, when she was o ...

, both Egyptian actors; his maternal grandparents were Jewish

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivors. During his childhood, Sharif was shuttled back and forth among Montreal,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. He has a B.A. from Queen's University, a Master's in Comparative Politics from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

and a degree in Performing Arts from

The Lee Strasberg Institute The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute (originally the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute) is an acting school founded in 1969 by actor, director, and acting teacher Lee Strasberg. The Institute is located in Union Square (New York City), Union ...

Career

Sharif has worked as an actor, appearing in the 2000 Egyptian miniseries ''Wagh el qamar'', the 2005-6 French-language Canadian series ''

Virginie ''Virginie'' was a French-language Canadian television series that aired Monday through Thursday on Radio-Canada (the French-language CBC television network). It debuted in 1996. The show examined the public and private lives of teachers, stude ...

'', the 2008 Egyptian film ''Hassan wa Morcus'' and the 2016 Irish film ''

The Secret Scripture ''The Secret Scripture'' is a 2008 novel written by Irish writer Sebastian Barry. Plot summary The main character is an old woman, Roseanne McNulty, who now resides in the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital. Having been a patient for some fift ...

''. When he became an actor, his grandfather said to him: “I gave you my name, I gave you my looks. I'm not going to give you anything else. You have to do it entirely on your own.” He appeared in the 2017

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

''11th Hour'', which was selected for screening at the TriBeCa Film Festival. He has also worked as a model: He was “the face of

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

for the Arabic world and appeared in a major

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and ...

print campaign in Egypt.” He was a presenter at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards in 2011, during which he performed a memorable comedic sketch with

Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Do ...

Activism

In 2012, Sharif came out as gay in ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * ''The Advocate'' (LGBT magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States *''The Harvard Advocate'', a literary magazin ...

'', a gay newsmagazine. Noting that the recent parliamentary elections in Egypt had “dealt secularists a particularly devastating blow,” he stated that the vision of “a freer, more equal Egypt — a vision that many young patriots gave their lives to see realized in

Tahrir Square Tahrir Square ( ar, ميدان التحرير ', , English language, English: Liberation Square), also known as "Martyr Square", is a major public town square in downtown Cairo, Egypt. The square has been the location and focus for political dem ...

— has been hijacked.” He is said to be “the first public personality to ever come out as openly gay in the Arab World.” His announcement led to widespread criticism and threats of violence. From 2013 to 2015, he was the National Spokesperson for the

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals i ...

(GLAAD). In May 2015, he was hired to handle community affairs by New York developer Ian Reisner. In an August 2015 interview, Sharif said that his recently deceased grandfather, Omar Sharif, had been aware of his homosexuality and had never had a problem with it, though his mother did; she told him "Don't tell your grandmother, this would kill her." He responded, "She survived Auschwitz but this would kill her?" He also said he hoped to change Egyptian attitudes toward gay people. “I’m a son, I’m a brother, I’m a coworker, I’m a friend,” he said. “I’m not a fact, or a figure, or a statistic. I’m not a moral or an ethical debate.” Sharif gave a speech at the 2016

Oslo Freedom Forum Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is a series of global conferences run by the New York-based non-profit Human Rights Foundation under the slogan "Challenging Power". OFF was founded in 2009 as a one-time event and has taken place annually ever since. On ...

discussing his coming out story during

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...

and admitting to suicidal thoughts. After the

Sultan of Brunei The sultan of Brunei is the monarchical head of state of Brunei and head of government in his capacity as prime minister of Brunei. Since independence from the British in 1984, only one sultan has reigned, though the royal institution dates bac ...

passed a law to stone homosexual people in April 2019, Sharif Jr. challenged him a few days later. If the Sultan would execute his own homosexual

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

, Sharif Jr. would execute himself as well.

Personal life

As of 2012 he was living in Cairo, however shortly thereafter, uneasy about the “new Egypt,” he left the country. He now resides in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Filmography

Television

Film

Bibliography

* A Tale of Two Omars: A Memoir of Family, Revolution, and Coming Out During the Arab Spring (October 5, 2021),

Honors and awards

He was honored as one of the “Out 100” in 2012,” The Advocate's "40 Under 40" in 2014 and 2015, and won

Attitude Magazine ''Attitude'' (stylised in all lowercase) is a British gay lifestyle magazine owned by Stream Publishing Limited. It is sold worldwide as a physical magazine, and as a digital download for the iPad and iPhone via the App Store, and for Androi ...

's 'Inspiration Award' in 2016.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharif, Omar, Jr. 1983 births Living people Activists from Montreal Alumni of the London School of Economics Queen's University at Kingston alumni Canadian activists Canadian male film actors Canadian male models Canadian male television actors Egyptian Jews Egyptian activists Egyptian male film actors Egyptian male models Egyptian male television actors Canadian expatriates in England Canadian gay actors Jewish Canadian male actors Jewish male models Jews from Quebec Gay Jews Gay Muslims Gay models Canadian gay writers Egyptian LGBT rights activists Egyptian LGBT actors Canadian LGBT rights activists Male actors from Montreal Models from Montreal Yiddish-speaking people Canadian people of Israeli descent Egyptian people of Israeli descent 21st-century Canadian male actors 21st-century Egyptian male actors 21st-century Canadian LGBT people