After being named a “Rising Star of the Arab Screen” by critics in international newspapers, Jordanian-Palestinian actress Tara Abboud was chosen to join the star-studded cast of the upcoming UK original Disney+ series ‘Culprits.’
The eight-episode dark-comedy series follows the aftermath of a heist, where the thieves are individually targeted by the same killer.
Directed by J Blakeson, Culprits is being shot in Canada and has a star-studded -cast that includes Eddie Izzard, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Kamel Al-Basha, Kevin Vidal, Gemma Arterton, Niamh Algar, and Ned Denneh.
This comes after Tara’s name made headlines in prominent worldwide media outlets that applauded her work in Mohamed Diab’s ‘Amira,’ which received wide recognition from the Venice Film Festival audience, where it had its world debut in the festival’s ‘Afaq Competition’ and won three awards.
Abboud was described by the Italian newspaper, Italy 24 News, as “the Zendaya of the Middle East,” in reference to the American actress Zendaya Marie Coleman.
The actress was named one of Screen International’s Arab Stars of Tomorrow in 2020 at the 42nd Cairo International Film Festival. She kicked off her career in the film industry at the age of 10 by playing in several short films, such as Moataz Matar’s film ‘Min Wara Al-Bab,’ and Tima Shomali’s ‘Log In.’
Following her dazzling performance in the aforementioned roles, Abboud played her first leading role in 2009 alongside renowned actor Amer Al-Khuffash in director Amjad Al-Rasheed’s ‘Princess of the Mountains.’ The movie was part of the director’s graduation project for the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts.
Abboud then appeared in two other graduation project films by two directors from the SAE Institute in Amman — ‘12 Centimetres’ (2014) by Zaid Khaled and ‘Life’ (2019) by Lynn Awad — both of which won prestigious awards.
Additionally, she nabbed a role in the Jordanian series ‘Crossing’, in which she co-starred with Saba Mubarak in 2019. The show’s storyline is about refugee camps and depicts the daily agony that refugees undergo.
