Hiam Abbass

Hiam Abbass was an Israeli-Arab actress, writer and director who gained a whole new level of exposure in the United States in the summer of 2018 when she began appearing on the HBO drama series "Succession" (HBO, 2018-). Born in Nazareth, Israel, and raised in the small Israeli village of Deir Hanna, Abbass didn't begin acting professionally on screen until she was in her 30s. She began appearing on French-language television shows and films, including 1998's "Living In Paradise," while slowly building her on screen presence throughout the decade. By the early 2000s, Abbass was acting primarily in films, among them "A Loving Father" (2002), "Paradise Now" (2005), and "The Nativity Story," the latter of which was a biblical drama about the birth of Jesus. In 2005 Abbass nabbed a small part in Steven Spielberg's historical drama "Munich," and followed that up with a role in writer/director Tom McCarthy's Oscar-nominated drama "The Visitor" (2007). She continued nabbing film parts over the next few years, before turning her attention to the director's chair with her feature debut "Inheritance" (2012). In addition to co-writing the script and directing, Abbass also starred in the dramatic film. After the release of "Inheritance," Abbass returned to film acting, with parts in "Exodus: Gods and Kings" (2014), "Foreign Body" (2016), and "In Syria" (2017). In 2017 she appeared in the big budget science fiction film "Blade Runner 2049" (2017), which also starred Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling. Then in 2018 Abbass began appearing in Oscar winner Adam McKay's dramatic HBO series "Succession." The series, which chronicled a powerful American family that runs a media empire, premiered on the premium cable network in June of 2018.