Yasmine Al Massri is a multifaceted international actress, contemporary artist, and dancer of Palestinian father and Egyptian mother, born in Lebanon.
At the age of 20, she relocated to Paris to pursue her education, graduating from the prestigious L'Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris in Multimedia and Live Performances.
Initially, Al Massri's artistic career began in dancing, joining Thouraya Baghdadi's Dance company in Paris in 2000. She was inspired by renowned choreographers and explored classical and innovative ways of performing Arab repertoire, as well as delving into world folklore, Flamenco, Salsa, and African dance. This experience led her to develop her own unique performance style and direct numerous performance videos that have been showcased in international performance arts festivals.
Al Massri's breakthrough as an actress came with the critically acclaimed Lebanese film "Caramel", written and directed by Nadine Labaki. The film received widespread critical acclaim at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and went on to become the most successful Arab film to date. Al Massri's performance earned her a best actress award at the Abu Dhabi International Film Festival, as well as a nomination at the Asia Pacific Screen Award 2007.
In 2008, director Najwa al Najjar cast Al Massri in the lead role of her award-winning film "Pomegranates and Myrrh", alongside Hiam Abbass. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, and Al Massri won the Youssef Chahine Best Actress award for her performance at the Rabat International Film Festival.
Al Massri's subsequent roles include starring in Julian Schnabel's internationally acclaimed film "Miral", alongside Vanessa Redgrave, Hiam Abbas, Frieda Pinto, and Willem Dafoe, and winning the best film award at the Dubai International Film Festival 2011 for her movie "The Last Friday".
More recently, Al Massri has appeared as a series regular opposite John Malkovich in the NBC series Crossbones and as a series regular in the ABC series Quantico.
In 2015, Variety included Al Massri on their list of breakout performances, alongside notable actors such as Rami Malek, Aziz Ansari, Titus Burgess, Taraji P. Henson, Ben Mendelsohn, and more.
