Kaya Gravitter
People like Sam Esmail and Rami Malek are breaking down stereotypes that are placed on Arab Americans and American Muslims in Hollywood. We should shine (more) light on the diversity that is in this country that people seem to forget about, especially among the celebrities.
Even though whitewashing is a real thing in Hollywood there are still celebrities that are either immigrants, children of immigrants, or are of different religions and they’re all trying to destroy the stereotypes. Sam Esmail is one of those celebrities.
Sam Esmail is mostly known in the media for directing and producing the show Mr. Robot. The show is focused on the life of Elliot, a young man who works as a cyber-security engineer but is a hacker in his free time. Rami Malek who plays Elliot, just won an Emmy for his role in the series.
Esmail is an American Muslim of Egyptian descent, born on September 17th, 1977 in Hoboken, New Jersey. He graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts and received a Master of Fine Arts from the AFI Conservatory.
Sam is engaged to actress, Emmy Rossum. Esmail and Rossum are an interfaith couple with Rossum being of the Jewish Faith. Although he has not discussed his faith much in the media, Sam is proud about his heritage. During his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, one of the most important movie award ceremonies in the United States, Sam Esmail said ‘Shukran’ (thank you) when receiving his award. ‘Arab Twitter’ blew up!
Sam Esmail just thanked his family in Egypt & ended his speech with "shukran" (trans. thank you)… I am crying. #MrRobot #Represent 😭👏🏼
— Dena Khalafallah (@DenaKhalafallah) January 11, 2016
The Mr. Robot series was up for two nominations at the 2016 Emmy’s but it did not win. However, the series has won several awards, with some being at this years’ 2016 Critic’s Choice Awards and Golden Globes.
Great job, Sam Esmail!
