Mohamed Saad (actor)

Mohamed Saad Abdel-Hamid Ibrahim (born 14 December 1968) (Arabic: محمد سعد عبد الحميد إبراهيم, IPA: [mæˈħæmmæd ˈsæʕd ˈæħmæd]) is an Egyptian actor active since 1988. Saad is known for comedic roles. Saad started his career acting in several supporting roles. His first breakthrough was opposite Salah Zulfikar in Road To Eilat (1994). His second role that brought him fame was in El Nazer (2000). Then, Saad took the lead in El-Limby (2002; the name, that of Saad's character, is a play on the name of one of Egypt's colonial figures, High Commissioner Edmund Allenby). Playing the film's "illiterate, inefficient, slow, stoned and drunk" hero, Saad "invests his first leading role with a hyperactive physical energy, especially evident in dance sequences." The comedy film became one of the highest-grossing films in Egyptian cinema. Between 2003 and 2005, Saad played similar characters in three further films, including one of his most successful movies, Ely Baly Balak. In 2006, Saad starred in Katkout (The Chick), in which he played a hopeless Upper Egyptian who stumbles into a career as a boxer and crimefighter. Cairo online magazine Yallabina criticized the film for relying on Saad's physical comedy at the expense of story and script.