Following the premiere of #1 Happy Family USA, his new animated show on Amazon Prime, and the kick-off of his stand-up comedy tour Love Beam 7000, Ramy Youssef is having a busy summer,
to say the least. May 31 marked the release of Mountainhead, an HBO satirical comedy-drama from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, about a group of tech billionaires who meet up in the middle of an international financial crisis. And even with his award-winning, self-titled show Ramy and his work on Netflix’s Mo (starring Mo Amer), Youssef, who was born in New York to Egyptian parents, sees lots of unexplored potential in Arab-led storytelling in Hollywood.
“There are still so many untapped things in the English language. We can’t just ignore how rich our cinema history is, and how prolific our television continues to be in the Arab World,” he says, naming Middle Eastern icons like Youssef Chahine and Adel Eman as his filmmaking role models. “We don’t have a scarcity problem, because we have so much great art. It’s just about continuing to make it.”
Photo: Robby Klein/Getty Images
