Mireille Maalouf

Mireille Maalouf was born in Paris and grew up in Beirut, Lebanon. After studying at Saint Joseph French University in Beirut, she took acting lessons with the Lebanese stage director Mounir Abou Debs, subsequently joining his theatre company. There, she played the title role in Sophocles’ Antigone, Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Maria Lebiadkin in Dostoyevsky’s Demons. In 1974 she met Peter Brook and subsequently appeared in many of his productions: these include Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, Le Mahabharata and Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi. In 1981 she returned to Beirut, working for TV and radio as well. On stage, she has performed Julia Domna by Chérif Khaznadar, among other roles, for which she received the prize “Best Modern Actress of the Arab World” at the 2000 International Theatre Festival in Cairo. Furthermore, she was featured in Giles Terera’s extraordinary documentary film about William Shakespeare, Muse of Fire. In 2010, she received the “Outstanding Achievement Award” for her life’s work in Damascus. Most recently, Mireille Maalouf appeared in Women in War by Jawad al-Asadi at Beirut’s Babel Theatre.