Netflix’s ‘Crashing Eid’ star Summer Shesha finds her passion in acting

L-R: Bateel Qamlo as Lamar, Summer Shesha as Razan and Khalid AlHarbi as Hasan in 'Crashing Eid.' (Supplied)
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Updated 12 October 2023
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Netflix’s ‘Crashing Eid’ star Summer Shesha finds her passion in acting

  • The Saudi actress discusses her leading role in Netflix series ‘Crashing Eid’ and working with her mother

DUBAI: Passion changes everything. Ten years ago, Saudi actress Summer Shesha was thriving in the finance world, her drive and talent seemed guaranteed to carry her to the top of the industry. Then, a casting call on Twitter that began as a fun weekend activity ended up transforming the plan she had for her life (and, years later, would transform her mother’s as well). Now, as the star of Netflix’s first female-led Saudi original series “Crashing Eid,” which launches Oct. 19, she is set to become a global star in an industry fueled by an ambition that matches her own. 

“I’ve always been a practical person. If I’m going to pursue something, I want to know that I’m going somewhere. And for a long time, I didn’t think that something I was passionate about could be the thing that gets me to the heights I once dreamed of in life — to do something that resonates across the world,” Shesha tells Arab News.

“That’s why I’m so proud of this series. I truly believe it’s great. It’s really entertaining, it’s laugh-out-loud funny, and it has themes that feel specific to Saudi but will resonate everywhere. This is an unconventional story, one that doesn’t represent all Saudis. But it’s told with love for Saudi, with a Saudi heart, and I think the world will love it, too.”

While much has changed for Shesha since she first stepped on set for a small scene in Mahmoud Sabbagh’s 2013 web series “Kash,” the feeling that she discovered then has never left her. At first, she thought it was just curiosity. She was scheduled to be there for just two hours that day, but found herself lingering long after her scene had wrapped. 




Summer Shesha as Razan, Bateel Qamlo as Lamar in 'Crashing Eid.; (Supplied)

“I just couldn’t leave the set,” Shesha remembers. “I sat next to the camera man, then the make-up artists, then the art department… I was fascinated. I stayed for 14 hours. And because I couldn’t get enough, I went to LA to try a course, and it unlocked something within me. When I finally made sense of what I was feeling, I realized what it was. It was passion.”

Still, for nine years, Shesha couldn’t bring herself to step away from the career she had built for herself, torn at all times between her two identities. Even after appearing in hit films such as “Book of Sun,” or winning Best Actress at the 8th Saudi Film Festival at Ithra for her role in “Kayan,” she was still unsure whether to introduce herself to people as an actress or a banker. And as a senior manager in one of the top banks in the country, it was hard to let that part go.

Eventually, fate stepped in, in the most unexpected of ways. In 2022, Shesha was having a conversation with her friend, Saudi actor and filmmaker Fatima Al-Banawi, who was in the process of casting her directorial debut. It was impossible, Al-Banawi told her, to find great 50-year-old Saudi actresses. That gave Shesha an idea.

“I said, ‘I think my mother would make a good actress.’ I told my mom, and she was dismissive immediately — ‘What? No, no, no,’ she said. I told her that I knew she’d be a natural. I gave her number to Fatima, and Fatima called her, auditioned her, and cast her. Mom was still resisting a day before the shoot was going to begin, asking me how she should apologize because this was all a mistake. She was ready to quit!” says Shesha.




Summer Shesha as Razan, Yasir AlSaggaf as Sofyan, Amani Idrees as Mona in 'Crashing Eid.' (Supplied)

“I told her, ‘Mom, it’s normal to be afraid right before doing something new. But the truth is you’re doing great. This is natural. And you know what? You’re an inspiration. You’re in your fifties, and you’re trying something new, and you’re getting out of your shell.’ She did it, and never looked back,” Shesha continues. 

It wasn’t long before Shesha’s mother — Amani Idrees — was booking roles herself. She was cast as the mother in “Crashing Eid” before they had yet found the right actress to play the daughter.

“I hadn’t taken a vacation in two years, I wasn’t looking to do any role at the time because I was exhausted. But then when my mother was cast and met with the showrunner and the directors, and they said, ‘Doesn’t she look just like the actress Summer Shesha? We should ask her to come!’ The casting director had to explain that I was actually her real-life daughter,” Shesha explains with a laugh. 

“The second I read the script, I loved it. I loved the character, the story, how unique it is. It’s about accepting the other — people who are different from you. And it’s comedy, which I’d never really explored before. And not just constant punchlines, but absurd family situations that make you laugh by their very nature. I was hesitant before, but once I read it, I couldn’t say no,” she continues. 

While having her mother around made the family aspect of the series feel natural, there was one aspect that was completely alien to Shesha — playing a mother herself. 

“I’m not a mother, so I didn’t think there was any way I could play the mother to a 15-year-old. When the actress and I first met, it felt silly — she didn’t feel like my daughter at all. I was so scared that the chemistry would make it feel like we were just friends instead,” says Shesha. “But then I realized, actually, my mother and I are friends. We don’t have the usual dynamic, and that’s OK too. It works for us. So I said to myself, ‘OK, I’m going to play it that way.’ And suddenly it all started to feel more natural, and our relationship started to feel real.” 

Now, a year since she left the finance world behind, Shesha is more driven than ever. She’s writing her own projects, having received a grant from Netflix’s Grow Creative Initiative, and is excited to continue navigating the many aspects of a being Saudi woman that have only just begun to be explored. And with three more films in post-production, “Crashing Eid” may be her breakout moment to the world as an actress, but it is only a herald of the myriad things to come. 

Perhaps what she enjoys most of all, though, is that her best friend is joining her on this journey, too. And that the unique mother-daughter dynamic they’ve fostered has now become that of two creative voices who are in love with a craft that once seemed impossible for both of them to pursue. 

“My sister came home recently and found us both screaming in the kitchen and had no idea what was wrong, but we were just doing an exercise assigned to us by the acting coach. She said, ‘I’m living in a crazy house!’ And, yeah, acting can be crazy sometimes. But I’m not the only crazy one in the house anymore,” says Shesha. “I’m so happy we’re doing this together.”


Bella Hadid turns spotlight onto powerful Ms. Rachel poem

Updated 08 June 2025
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Bella Hadid turns spotlight onto powerful Ms. Rachel poem

DUBAI: American Dutch Palestinian supermodel Bella Hadid has shared a powerful poem by popular children’s educator and YouTuber Rachel Griffin Accurso, known globally as Ms. Rachel, amplifying its message of hope and solidarity with Gaza.

The poem, titled “The People Were Brave,” went viral on social media for its stirring call to action urging people to show bravery and use their voices for good.

“The leaders were mostly silent. They were scared of what they might lose. The celebrities were mostly silent. They were scared of what they might lose. The media was mostly silent. They were scared of what they might lose. But the people were not silent. They were brave,” the poem begins.

“So never stop speaking up for those in need. Never wait for the world. It was ordinary people that became extraordinary. And changed everything. And moved us all. And saved us all,” it ends.

Last week, Ms. Rachel made headlines when she said she was willing to jeopardize her career to advocate for Palestinian children suffering under the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

She said she had been targeted by online campaigns and faced calls for government investigation after voicing support for children affected by war in Gaza and elsewhere.

Despite growing criticism from some pro-Israel groups and conservative media, in a recent interview with WBUR, a Boston-based public radio station, she said she remained defiant.

“I would risk everything — and I will risk my career over and over to stand up for children,” she said.

“It’s all about the kids for me. I wouldn’t be Ms. Rachel if I didn’t deeply care about all kids.”

The YouTube star added a recent meeting with Palestinian mothers whose children remain trapped in Gaza had had a profound effect on her: “When you sit with a mother who’s FaceTiming her boys in Gaza who don’t have food, and you see that anguish, you ask yourself: What more can I do?”

A former teacher in New York, Ms Rachel said her work had always been rooted in the principle that all children, regardless of nationality or background, deserved dignity, safety, and access to basic needs.

“That’s the basis of everything for me — children are equal,” she said. 


Petals and thorns: India’s Booker prize author Banu Mushtaq

Updated 24 min 58 sec ago
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Petals and thorns: India’s Booker prize author Banu Mushtaq

  • Mushtaq won the coveted literature prize as the first author writing in Kannada — an Indian regional language
  • As a young girl worried about her future, she said she started writing to improve her “chances of marriage”

HASSAN, India: All writers draw on their experience, whether consciously or not, says Indian author Banu Mushtaq — including the titular tale of attempted self-immolation in her International Booker Prize-winning short story collection.
Mushtaq, who won the coveted literature prize as the first author writing in Kannada — an Indian regional language — said the author’s responsibility is to reflect the truth.
“You cannot simply write describing a rose,” said the 77-year-old, who is also a lawyer and activist.
“You cannot say it has got such a fragrance, such petals, such color. You have to write about the thorns also. It is your responsibility, and you have to do it.”
Her book “Heart Lamp,” a collection of 12 powerful short stories, is also her first book translated into English, with the prize shared with her translator Deepa Bhasthi.
Critics praised the collection for its dry and gentle humor, and its searing commentary on the patriarchy, caste and religion.
Mushtaq has carved an alternative path in life, challenging societal restrictions and perceptions.
As a young girl worried about her future, she said she started writing to improve her “chances of marriage.”
Born into a Muslim family in 1948, she studied in Kannada, which is spoken mostly in India’s southern Karnataka state by around 43 million people, rather than Urdu, the language of Islamic texts in India and which most Muslim girls learnt.
She attended college, and worked as a journalist and also as a high school teacher.

Constricted life

But after marrying for love, Mushtaq found her life constricted.
“I was not allowed to have any intellectual activities. I was not allowed to write,” she said.
“I was in that vacuum. That harmed me.”
She recounted how as a young mother aged around 27 with possible postpartum depression, and ground down by domestic life, had doused petrol on herself and on the “spur of a moment” readied to set herself on fire.
Her husband rushed to her with their three-month-old daughter.
“He took the baby and put her on my feet, and he drew my attention to her and he hugged me, and he stopped me,” Mushtaq told AFP.
The experience is nearly mirrored in her book — in its case, the protagonist is stopped by her daughter.
“People get confused that it might be my life,” the writer said.
Explaining that while not her exact story, “consciously or subconsciously, something of the author, it reflects in her or his writing.”
Books line the walls in Mushtaq’s home, in the small southern Indian town of Hassan.
Her many awards and certificates — including a replica of the Booker prize she won in London in May — are also on display.
She joked that she was born to write — at least that is what a Hindu astrological birth chart said about her future.
“I don’t know how it was there, but I have seen the birth chart,” Mushtaq said with a laugh, speaking in English.
The award has changed her life “in a positive way,” she added, while noting the fame has been a little overwhelming.
“I am not against the people, I love people,” she said referring to the stream of visitors she gets to her home.
“But with this, a lot of prominence is given to me, and I don’t have any time for writing. I feel something odd... Writing gives me a lot of pleasure, a lot of relief.”

‘The writer is always pro-people’
Mushtaq’s body of work spans six short story collections, an essay collection and poetry.
The stories in “Heart Lamp” were chosen from the six short story collections, dating back to 1990.
The Booker jury hailed her characters — from spirited grandmothers to bumbling religious clerics — as “astonishing portraits of survival and resilience.”
The stories portray Muslim women going through terrible experiences, including domestic violence, the death of children and extramarital affairs.
Mushtaq said that while the main characters in her books are all Muslim women, the issues are universal.
“They (women) suffer this type of suppression and this type of exploitation, this type of patriarchy everywhere,” she said. “A woman is a woman, all over the world.”
While accepting that even the people for whom she writes may not like her work, Mushtaq said she remained dedicated to providing wider truths.
“I have to say what is necessary for the society,” she said.
“The writer is always pro-people... With the people, and for the people.”


Emirati artists perform in showcase at London’s Kensington Palace

Updated 07 June 2025
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Emirati artists perform in showcase at London’s Kensington Palace

LONDON: “If we do not tell our story, someone else will. And they will get it wrong,” said Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo, founder of the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation, following a performance in London on Friday that brought Emirati talent to a major international platform.

Emirati artists took to the stage at Kensington Palace to present a night of operatic performances. Fatima Al-Hashimi, Ahmed Al-Housani, and Ihab Darwish performed in multiple languages including Arabic, Italian and English. The performance was part of the Abu Dhabi Festival’s Abroad program in collaboration with the Peace and Prosperity Trust. The event was intended to promote Emirati cultural expression through classical music and cross-cultural collaboration.

Fatima Al-Hashimi, Ahmed Al-Housani, and Ihab Darwish performed in multiple languages including Arabic, Italian and English. (Supplied)

Alkhamis-Kanoo said an event like this is vital for cultural diplomacy and is not a one-off, but a commitment to placing Emirati talent on the world stage. 

“It’s about creating understanding, building dialogue, and showing the world the strength of our cultural identity through music,” she explained. “We invest in the young, we partner with the world, and we build cultural legacies that last.” 

The evening also included the premiere of Darwish’s latest composition “Ruins of Time,” which blended orchestral arrangements with traditional Arabic elements.

“Music is the fastest way to reach people. It creates peace, it creates understanding,” Darwish told Arab News. “Music removes boundaries. It creates a shared language, a dialogue of coexistence, peace, and tolerance. When people from different cultures come together to create music, it naturally fosters mutual understanding.”

Al-Hashimi explained the intention behind adapting a classical repertoire to reflect Arab identity. “Even while singing in Italian, I included Arabic lyrics to keep our signature present,” she said.

Al-Housani described the event as a “professional milestone,” adding: “Performing here is more than a concert, it’s a message. We’re here to show the world the strength and beauty of our culture.”


As goats get pricier, Pakistan’s capital turns to falooda dessert to keep Eid Al-Adha spirit alive

Updated 08 June 2025
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As goats get pricier, Pakistan’s capital turns to falooda dessert to keep Eid Al-Adha spirit alive

  • Falooda is made with vermicelli in cold milk, softened basil seeds and generous scoops of vanilla or kulfi ice cream
  • Final touch is a fragrant pour of rose syrup, turning concoction into a pink-hued celebration of summer and Eid

ISLAMABAD: With sacrificial goats commanding million-rupee price tags this Eid Al-Adha, many in Pakistan’s capital are seeking solace not in the livestock markets, but in a humbler tradition: a chilled bowl of falooda — a silky, rose-scented dessert layered with ice cream, nostalgia, and just enough sweetness to lift a heat- and inflation-weary soul.

A dessert with Persian roots, falooda made its way to South Asia during the Mughal era, evolving from a frozen, rose-infused noodle pudding in Iran to the vibrant, multi-textured treat beloved across Pakistan today.

At its best, falooda is an edible symphony, a tangle of thin vermicelli swimming in cold milk, softened basil seeds (tukhmalanga) floating like miniature pearls, and a generous scoop of vanilla or kulfi ice cream crowning the glass. The final touch is a fragrant pour of rose syrup, turning the whole concoction into a pink-hued celebration of summer — and now Eid.

Nowhere is this more evident than at Bata Kulfi Falooda, a small, family-run dessert shop in Islamabad’s bustling I-8 Markaz marketplace.

There, amid the clatter of spoons and the hum of Eid shoppers, customers line up for what’s become a seasonal staple, the shop’s signature Matka Falooda, served in traditional clay bowls that keep the dessert ice-cold, even under the blazing June sun.

“We first opened in Peshawar [northwestern city] in 1962,” said Shah Faisal, the shop’s manager, as he rushed between customers to take orders. “In 2015, we brought the same taste to Islamabad. Nothing has changed. The ingredients, the method, even the feel of it, it all comes from Peshawar.”

During Eid week, Bata Kulfi Falooda’s signature Matka Falooda becomes more than a dessert. It’s a celebration in a bowl.

“It’s a memory in every bite,” said Muhammad Kamil, a 27-year-old student who had just returned from a livestock market, saying he was stunned by the jaw-dropping prices.

“Right at the entrance, we saw a goat priced at Rs1.5 million [$5,350]. A little further in, there was a sheep for Rs2 million [$7,140],” Kamil said as he waited for his bowl of falooda.

“After seeing a goat worth Rs1.5 million, only ice cream could cool us down, otherwise it would’ve been hard to keep the spirit of sacrifice alive.”

Determined to celebrate in his own way, Kamil turned to falooda, at a far more palatable Rs450 ($1.60) per bowl.

What drew him in, he said, was the comforting presentation: the cold earthen bowl, the soft noodles slicked with syrup, and the melting scoop of ice cream sinking slowly into the milky depths. He’s even considering gifting bowls of it to friends this Eid.

Indeed, with families across Islamabad and beyond rethinking how to celebrate Eid this year, it may not be the size of the goat that sets the mood but rather the shared sweetness of something simple, familiar, and deeply rooted in tradition.

So, while this Eid may see fewer families walking home from markets with goats in tow, many are still finding ways to savor the spirit of the season with a humble bowl of falooda, which is doing more than just cooling people down — it’s lifting spirits, one spoonful at a time.

According to shop manager Faisal, falooda easily outpaces even their famous kulfi in popularity during the Eid holidays.

“In this heat and with everything getting so expensive, people still want something festive,” he said. “And falooda brings joy that doesn’t cost a fortune.”


Andria Tayeh nominated at Austrian Film Award

Updated 07 June 2025
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Andria Tayeh nominated at Austrian Film Award

DUBAI: Lebanese Jordanian actress Andria Tayeh has been nominated for best supporting actress at the Austrian Film Award for her role in “Mond.” 

The ceremony is scheduled to take place from June 12 to June 15.

Tayeh shared the news with her followers on Instagram, thanking her supporters and the awards organization for the recognition.

She is nominated alongside Italian actress Gerti Drassl and Austrian actress Maria Hofstatter.

“Mond” is directed by Austrian filmmaker Kurdwin Ayub. The film follows former martial artist Sarah, who leaves Austria to train three sisters from a wealthy family in the Middle East. 

What initially appears to be a dream job soon takes a darker turn: The young women are isolated from the outside world and placed under constant surveillance. They show little interest in sports — raising the question of why Sarah was hired in the first place.

Tayeh plays the role of Nour, one of the three sisters. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Andria Tayeh (@andria_tayeh)

The actress, who is also known for her roles in Netflix’s hit series “Al-Rawabi School for Girls,” has had a busy year collaborating with multiple brands and fronting their campaigns.

In February, Giorgio Armani announced her appointment as its new Middle East beauty ambassador.

She took to Instagram to express her excitement: “I am thrilled and honored to embark on this new journey with Armani beauty. This marks a real milestone for me, as the brand embodies values I have always cherished: timeless elegance, dramatic simplicity, and women empowerment.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Andria Tayeh (@andria_tayeh)

That same month, she was named the first Middle Eastern ambassador for French haircare brand Kerastase.

In a promotional clip, she appeared in an all-white studio, answering questions about why she is the ideal Kerastase ambassador. Tayeh spoke in a mix of English, Arabic and French, playfully flipping her hair for the camera as she discussed her dedication to maintaining healthy hair.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Andria Tayeh (@andria_tayeh)

In March, she also fronted Armani’s Ramadan campaign, set against the backdrop of a desert landscape.

Draped in a flowing emerald-green abaya, Tayeh was seen in the video applying the Vert Malachite perfume from Armani Prive as the camera captured the details of the fragrance and her attire. The setting featured sand dunes stretching into the horizon.