Although Sayed Badreya may not be a household name in the US, his face is a familiar one. Since 1986, Sayed has appeared in over 70 movies including “Stargate”, “Three Kings”, “Independence Day”, and “The Insider”. In a recent interview with Simo Benbachir, a journalist from Morocco currently living in Los Angeles, Sayed related his journey from his home country to America to his remarkable career, and the challenges he faced as an immigrant.
In the interview, Sayed credits the prayers from his parents, hard work, and being persistent with his success. His career actually started in New York as he studied film directing. From New York, Sayed moved to Los Angeles and worked as an assistant director. He worked for many exceptional directors, including James Cameron, the director of films such as “The Terminator”, “Titanic”, and “Avatar”.
From that experience, Sayed found himself acting in films starting in 1986. In addition to the noted films in Sayed’s career, he found himself working alongside famous Hollywood actors such as George Clooney, Gwyneth Paltrow, Al Pacino, Halle Berry, and Jackie Chan. Although it may have been easy to be starstruck, Sayed credits his success by staying focused on the character that the actors play in the movie, so he can stay focused as well.
Speaking about the challenges of being an immigrant in America, Sayed says that it’s the same as all challenges that immigrants face when living and working in another country. It’s difficult being a foreign land and so far away from his family. But creating a new family helped ease his suffering. Being the father of Mohammed and Fatima certainly helped ease the transition in creating a new life in the US.
Currently, Sayed is working on a movie titled “Thar masri”, which means “Egyptian Revenge”. The film is a combination of classic Egyptian cinema with American westerns. The story is an Egyptian peasant who seeks out revenge when his family is attacked.
Simo Benbachir
The Moroccan TV reporter who was the first from his country to cover major American television events such as the Oscars and Grammys, Simo has become well-known for his celebrity interviews. He is also noted for his fresh points of view and opinions that he delivers to his Arabic audiences.
Starting at 2M, the second channel in Morocco, Simo moved to different channels across North Africa. Working for a time at Nessma TV in Tunisia, then on to B-Beirut, a Lebanese TV channel that is quite popular in the Arab world. In 2014, Simo became the showbiz reporter for Alrabiya News English and then joined The Middle East TV Hala TV.
Simo is known as the Mario Lopez of the Middle East thanks to his popular entertainment programs which are shot in Hollywood. Arab Americans in the US along with his gossip program that is broadcasted on Hala TV has established Simo as the most popular Moroccan TV personality. According to Version Homme magazine, Simo is one of the most influential media personalities from Morocco. In 2017, Simo was the recipient of the Brukmer Press Honorary Award.
