Biography

Karim Ahmed Kassem (Arabic: كريم أحمد قاسم, Kareem Ahmad Qassem, Egyptian Arabic: [kæɾˈiːm ʔæːsem], also spelled Karim Assem; born 8 October 1986) is an Egyptian actor. Karim was born on 8 October 1986 in Cairo, Egypt. He is a Muslim himself though had a multi-faith religious upbringing celebrating all Jewish, Christian and Muslim holidays as a child. His late mother was Jewish and his father is a Muslim and is from both Islamic and Christian faith heritage. His paternal grandfather was Muslim and his paternal grandmother was a Christian. His maternal grandfather was a Jewish anti-Zionist who refused to immigrate to Israel, believing Zionism to be a "racist" movement. His maternal grandfather was a prominent Egyptian nationalist.

He is a graduate of the American University in Cairo, where he studied theatre and acted in many of the university's plays. He is trilingual in Egyptian Arabic (also Standard Arabic), French and English.Discovered in 2006 while taking an acting workshop, he had his cinematic breakthrough in the teen drug film Awqat Faragh meaning "Spare time". Kassem has co-starred with colleague Amr Abed in three of his films.