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Actor

1976-06-22 · Haifa, Israel · Male

12 series in the catalog

Yousef "Joe" Sweid (Arabic: يوسف سويد, Hebrew: יוסף "ג'ו" סוויד; born 22 June 1976) is an Arab-Israeli actor and dancer.

Early and personal life

Yousef Sweid was born in Haifa, Israel, to a Christian-Arab family. He is a graduate of the theater department at Tel Aviv University.

Sweid was married to Jewish-Israeli Yael Ronen, a director at the Cameri Theatre. They had a son in 2009. In 2015 they divorced. In 2018, he married Jewish-Israeli television host Adi Shilon. Their daughter was born in October 2019. They reside mostly in Berlin, Germany. Following the events of October 7th, Shilon moved back to Israel and then Shilon and Sweid got divorced.

Theater and film career

He started out by joining the Arab-Hebrew Theater in Jaffa. He went on to participate in television shows including Dancing again tonight (1991), Lane of White Chairs (a winner at the 1996 Acre Festival), Oh Brother Boom Boom (which in 2003 won at the Haifa festival for children's programming), Dragon (2004), and Immigrants (2005).

On stage, he performed alongside Ruth Kanner in 2001's Things you can see from here, you cannot see from there; in 2002 he appeared in Sea Shadow.

Sweid also participated in the international production The Time We Did Not Know Anything About Each Other, and in the dance production Barefoot. In 2001 he became director of a community theater program for both Arabs and Jews in Ramla, a town with mixed population in Israel.

In 2016, he played in one episode of the HBO series Game of Thrones in its 6th season, as a Meereenese freedman.

Filmography

2002: It's Not Me It's Not You (TV show): Bartender

2004: Maktub ("Destiny", TV movie): Atef, a Druze policeman

2004: Walk on Water: Rafik, an Arab Israeli waiter

2005: Kvish ("The Road")

2005: Telenovela Ltd.

2006: Ha 'Alufa ("The Champion", TV series): Jalal Kasum, a footballer

2006: The Bubble: Ashraf, a Palestinian (starring role)

2008: Restless: Arik

2009: Agora: Peter, a fanatic Christian leader in 4th-century Alexandria

2011: Homeland (American TV show, pilot episode): Hasan Ibrahim (credited as Yusuf Swade)

2012: Hatufim: Abdullah bin Rashid (Season 2 regular)

2013: Omar: Torturer

2015: Johnny and The Knights of Galilee (Israeli TV show): Kais

2015: False Flag: Amir Cohen (Amir Al-Hamati)

2016: The Writer (Israeli TV show): Kateb

2016: Game of Thrones: Meereenese freedman

2018: Tel Aviv on Fire: General Yehuda Edelman

2019: The Spy: George Seif

2020: Baghdad Central (TV Mini-Series 2020)

2020: Unorthodox (Netflix Series 2020)

Sweid also animates the puppet Mahboob ("beloved" in Arabic) in Sesame Street on Israel's Hop! channel.

Yousef Sweid on 'The Champion'.