DAPHNE ALEXANDER (BISAN)
Daphne Alexander grew up in Cyprus and lives in London. She speaks English, Greek and French fluently. A LAMDA graduate, she started as a regular on Casualty (BBC 1), and took part in TV series such as House of Saddam (HBO) and The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (BBC), and films such as Roman Polanski's The Ghost and Osunsami's The Fourth Kind. She has lately starred in Anthony Maras' award-winning film The Palace. Her theatre work includes Sea At Night at the Hackney Empire Studio, Change at the Arcola and Hippolytus at the White Bear.
NASRI SAYEGH (YUSIF)
A stage and film actor, Nasri Sayegh graduated from l’Ecole Supérieure d’Art Dramatique, in Paris, under the direction of JC.Cotillard. He has featured in theatre, TV and film productions in Lebanon, Canada and France. His TV work includes Shankaboot, a co-production between the BBC World Service Trust and a Lebanese production company. He has appeared in What’s Going On (Dir. Jocelyn Saab, Lebanon 2009) and Le procès d'Oscar Wilde (Dir. Christian Merlhiot, France 2010).
AHLAM 'ARAB (Zaynab)
A stage director, and a theatre and TV actor of great renown in her native Iraq, Ahlam Arab graduated from Baghdad’s Higher Institute of Fine Arts in 1978. She continued her postgraduate studies in the UK, before returning to Iraq in the 1980s to become a regular on Iraqi TV and stage productions. At the end of the 1990s, Ahlam returned to the UK where she established a theatre troupe that has staged a number of productions in London.
KAWA RASUL (Tawfiq)
Kawa Rasul is an actor and filmmaker living and working in London. Born in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq, he moved to Europe after completing his secondary education (Vocational College). Since settling in the UK, he has been involved in theatre, film and TV productions. His theatre work includes Dimoqratiyyah wa Nus / A Democracy and a Half (Directed by Ahlam Arab) and The Eight Days of the Week (Directed by Ahlam Arab). He is in post-production for Baby-Lon, a short film he wrote and directed. Kawa views cinema as a mirror of reality, and believes it to be an essential ingredient in our lives.
ZAIN RASHEED (Masud)
Born in Babylon, Zain moved with his family to the UK in his early teens. At the age of 17, he was cast by the Iraqi theatre director Ahlam Arab to appear in her production of Dimoqratiyyah wa Nus / A Democracy and a Half. This collaboration was followed by a role in Ahlam Arab’s next play, The Eight Days of the Week. Zain traces his love of cinema back to his first experience of watching Charlie Chaplin shorts, while still four or five years of age. Zain is studying for a degree in media studies.