1. Kal Naga is recognized primarily for his work in Egypt and the Middle East, but has increasingly ventured into American and British film and television roles since 2006.
35 Facts About Kal Naga
1. 2.
Kal Naga started acting and directing plays and musicals in Egypt while studying theatre at The American University in Cairo.
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Kal Naga is often tagged in western media as "Egypt's Brad Pitt", and he has been described as "the next Omar Sharif" especially after his American debut movie Civic Duty in 2007.
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Kal Naga is one of the most recognizable celebrity faces of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, taking part in mass demonstrations in Cairo that led to the removal of President Mubarak.
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Kal Naga faced defamation campaigns against him by the state-owned media during the Mubarak era before the January 25th, 2011 revolution in Egypt, and several times again from the 2013 "coup d'etat" General Sisi government in Egypt in retaliation for his advocacy about the deterioration of human rights, especially Egyptian youth situation in Egypt.
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Kal Naga has been successful across many Arab TV networks as a host for prime-time shows from 1997 until 2005.
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Kal Naga was born in Heliopolis, a cosmopolitan neighborhood of Cairo, Egypt.
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Kal Naga's mother revealed in 2013 that he is a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through Fatima Az-Zahraa and Imam Husayn ibn Ali son of Ali ibn Abi Talib.
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Kal Naga attended St George's College school for his primary education, graduated as an engineer of electrical telecommunications from the renowned Ain Shams University Faculty of Engineering and American University in Cairo.
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Kal Naga studied Computer Science with a minor in Theater and Drama.
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Kal Naga played water polo for his varsity team while based in Europe, worked part-time as a fashion model, and was a late-night talk show host and radio presenter in the late 1990s.
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Kal Naga joined the theatre department at The American University in Cairo, where he had the opportunity to discover his acting talent in the university's drama productions.
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Kal Naga cited his acting teacher Dr Mahmoud Al Lozy as his mentor who has influenced him the most.
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The first phase of Kal Naga's acting career was largely on stage, although he began hosting TV talk shows in 1998, which contributed to his popularity as a media personality in Egypt and Arabic speaking states.
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From 2010 onwards Abol Kal Naga mostly played the lead of much more diverse and complex roles, continued to win numerous awards as an actor and as a producer from regional and international prestigious film festivals.
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Kal Naga's acting career began in 1977 when he was still a child with a part in Egyptian film Madness of Love .
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Later in the same year Abol Kal Naga was awarded Best Actor at the Damascus International Film Festival and the Best Actor Award from the Paris Arab Cinema Biennale of the Institute du Monde Arabe IMA Film Festival.
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Kal Naga appeared in Tamer El-Bustani's independent short film: Qutat Baladi.
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Kal Naga has a record of presence at International Film Festivals, either as a performer or a jury member.
20.
On Saturday 13 April 2013, the play written by Nassim Soleimanpour, White Rabbit Red Rabbit that was performed by an array of A-list actors around the world, was performed for the first time in Arabic in Cairo by Kal Naga, who knew nothing of the play before he stood on the stage, as it is an experimental play; "This was a role for which I was prepared the most; you are always instructed not to do any preparation for the role [before reading the script]," said Abol Kal Naga.
21.
In September 2013, in a unique stage play reading in Arabic; Cancelled, Khaled Abol Kal Naga seamlessly takes on the lead role of Hassan, the director, and does a perfect and utterly hilarious impersonation of the talented, kind hearted and easily irritated director-professor who loves his students, but constantly criticizes them and the entire generation to which they belong, In this rough form of a play Abol Kal Naga's theatrical capabilities shined.
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Kal Naga created together with the well known Disney writer Zeinab Mobarak an adaptation that smartly kept the original Charles Dickens spirit and transported all the original songs and lyrics to the contemporary Arab culture.
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Kal Naga was later chosen to host the popular Good Morning Egypt TV show of ERTU, which he presented until 2001.
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Kal Naga hosted a popular live talk show Eshar Ma'ana.
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Kal Naga is announced to appear on Messiah, a new Netflix episodic TV series in 2020.
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Kal Naga has used his status as a film star in the Arab region and even before as a TV celebrity to raise awareness for a variety of issues in Egypt and the Middle East.
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Kal Naga played a pivotal role among others in the pro-democracy movement that culminated in the Tahrir square Egyptian revolution of January 25,2011.
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Kal Naga organized events and concerts in support of religious tolerance.
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Kal Naga advocated strongly to support Egyptian minorities as in the case of the violence against the copts.
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Kal Naga was one of the very early voices that supported taboo subjects in Egypt and the region like HIV awareness and FGM horrific practices.
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Kal Naga was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2007.
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Kal Naga is a strong supporter of the play: The BuSSy monologues, It originated as a student story telling play in 2005.
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Kal Naga has supported the Hands Across the Middle East Support Alliance, a non-profit, non-sectarian Human Rights organisation by acting as a celebrity judge for the "Dream Deferred Essay Contest".
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Kal Naga was interviewed several times in English, once by Ayman Mohyeldin of Al Jazeera, and several times by the BBC regarding the protests.
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Kal Naga has won a multitude of awards as an actor specially in the years 2004 for Sleepless Nights, and 2014 for Villa 69 and Eyes of a Thief.