Khalid Abdalla

Khalid Abdalla born 1980 is a BritishEgyptian actor He came to international prominence after starring in the 2006 Academy Awardnominated and BAFTAwinning film United 93 Written and directed by Paul Greengrass it chronicles events aboard United Airlines Flight 93 which was hijacked as part of the September 11 attacks Abdalla played Ziad Jarrah the pilot and leader of the four hijackers on board the flight He starred as Amir in the film of The Kite Runner and acted with Matt Damon in Green Zone his second film with director Paul Greengrass Abdalla is on the board of the National Student Drama Festival In 2011 he became one of the founding members of the Mosireen We Insist Collective in Cairo a group of revolutionary filmmakers and activists dedicated to supporting citizen media across Egypt in the wake of Hosni Mubaraks fall Three months after it began Mosireen became the most watched nonprofit YouTube channel in Egypt of all time and in the whole world in January 2012 Abdalla was educated at Kings College School an independent school for boys in Wimbledon in southwest London and his classmates included actor Ben Barnes and comedian Tom Basden He became interested in acting after becoming involved in his schools thriving drama scene In 1998 he directed a production of Someone Wholl Watch Over Me by Frank McGuinness which ended up having a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival and earned five stars in The Scotsman newspaper making him the youngest director to receive this accolade