Rosaline Elbay

Rosaline Elbay (Arabic: روزالين البيه; ) is an Egyptian stage and screen actress, producer and writer. She is known for her roles as Judy Goodwin on the Netflix series Kaleidoscope, Amani on the Hulu/A24 Films series Ramy, and Sara on the MBC Masr series Qabeel. She is currently starring as Nora Koriem on The Diplomat. Elbay was born and raised in the Cairo neighbourhood of Zamalek to Egyptian parents. She attended a British school in Cairo and grew up speaking English, Arabic and French. Elbay performed in a production of The Sound of Music at the age of 11. As a child, she loved The Mummy and "wanted to be Evie", later choosing to pursue archaeology. She studied Classics and Archaeology at Oxford University and was active in the Dramatic Society, winning a performance award in her first year. She then completed a Master's in Political science and Colonial History at the LSE, intending to participate in Egyptian politics after the revolution. Elbay credits Thelma Holt, who produced tours in which she starred, with urging her to pursue an acting career. She subsequently studied at the Actors Studio in New York City with Elizabeth Kemp before going on to complete the two-year MFA in Acting at LAMDA. Elbay's early career was in UK theatre. She was primarily trained in Shakespeare before attending drama school. In 2018 she appeared in her first Egyptian feature film, Diamond Dust, an adaptation of Ahmed Mourad's bestselling novel. She then starred in Fork & Knife, which premiered at that year's El Gouna Film Festival. Also in 2018, Elbay was the subject of the music video for "Fakra" by Massar Egbari, a band that rose to prominence during the 2011 Egyptian revolution, appearing as the love interest of lead singer Hany Dakkak. The Cairo International Film Festival appointed her as its first face for young filmmakers, a role she reprised in 2019. Since 2019 Elbay has starred as Amani Hassan in US A24 series Ramy, Ramy Youssef's eponymous Golden Globe and Peabody Award-winning show. Also in 2019, she made her MENA region television debut as Sara on MBC Masr's Qabeel, directed by Karim El Shenawy. For this she received widespread critical acclaim, with Al-Masry Al-Youm calling her performance "captivating, refined and simple" and critic Mona Mahmood hailing her "rising and powerful talent...