Anissa Naouai (born August 17, 1982) is an American journalist and former television presenter. She is the CEO of Maffick Media, a Berlin-based digital media company with Russian links, as of February 2019.

Early life

Naouai was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and is of Tunisian and German-American descent. In 2000–2001, Naouai studied at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also adm ...

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pr ...

. In 2001, at age 19, she entered the school-studio at Moscow Art Theatre (MAT), graduating in 2005. As a student she starred in performances as Bianca in ''

The Taming of the Shrew ''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken ...

'' (

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

), Rose in ''

The Rose Tattoo ''The Rose Tattoo'' is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams in 1949 and 1950; after its Chicago premiere on December 29, 1950, he made further revisions to the play for its Broadway premiere on February 2, 1951, and its publication by ...

'' (

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...

), and Mom in ''True West'' (

Sam Shepard Samuel Shepard Rogers III (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American actor, playwright, author, screenwriter, and director whose career spanned half a century. He won 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most by any writ ...

Career

Acting

Naouai was a member of the international theater company Studio 6 with the Moscow Art Theater. Naouai performed the audiobook ''

The School for Scandal ''The School for Scandal'' is a comedy of manners written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 May 1777. Plot Act I Scene I: Lady Sneerwell, a wealthy young widow, and her hireling Sn ...

'' by

Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (30 October 17517 July 1816) was an Irish satirist, a politician, a playwright, poet, and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is known for his plays such as ''The Rivals'', ''The S ...

in English for Russian company ArdisBook.

Documentary filmmaking

She produced the documentary film ''Isklyuchitelism'' (''Exceptionalism'' in English), which was shown on NTV. ''Zashto?'', another work she co-produced, was awarded Best Documentary Film by Cubavision International.

Journalism

Russia Today

CNN reported that, according to her

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job s ...

page, Naouai was a correspondent for RT from 2006, and a long-term friend of its Editor-in-Chief

Margarita Simonyan Margarita Simonovna Simonyan (russian: link=no, Маргарита Симоновна Симоньян; born 6 April 1980) is a Russian journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled media organisations RT (formerly R ...

. Naouai appeared on the program ''What's going on?'' on

REN TV REN TV (russian: РЕН ТВ) is a Russian free-to-air television network, was founded on 1 January 1997 by Irena Lesnevskaya and her son, Dmitry Lesnevsky, who had been running REN TV as a production house for other national Russian televisio ...

, anchored by Simonyan. From 2009, Naouai anchored the program '' In the Now'' for RT. The program brand has since expanded into a cross-channel digital platform that offers content via a variety of social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube). On September 2, 2014, on her program ''In the Now'', the general producer of the

Ukraine Today Ukraine Today was a Ukraine-based private English language satellite television channel, then webcasting service. The channel, which was owned by the Ukrainian 1+1 group and headquartered in Kyiv, presented round-the-clock news bulletins aimed ...

channel Tetiana Pushnova accused RT of lying in her opening remarks before promptly leaving the interview, displaying the message "Russia Today Stop Lie." In an exchange with CNN's

Christiane Amanpour Christiane Maria Heideh AmanpourStated on '' Finding Your Roots'', 22 January 2019 (; fa, کریستیان امان‌پور, Kristiane Amānpur; born 12 January 1958) is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chief ...

, Naouai said RT's job was “closing the holes” in mainstream Western channels’ coverage, and said that the

Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of the kremlins (Ru ...

funded it because

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime m ...

“wants … Russia to be respected, mutually respected on an equal playing base, and he wants dialogue to prevail.” In 2017, she told ''

Christian Science Monitor Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ� ...

"I don't think I'm working for an adversary, despite some elements in the American media-political establishment trying to position RT as such... In fact, I think my work, and RT overall, helps improve public discourse in the US by completing the picture of current affairs and introducing diverse voices into the debate at large."

Maffick

Naouai was the Chief Executive Officer of the Berlin-based media production company Maffick GmbH, which acquired ''In the Now'' in 2018. Maffick's majority shareholder was

Ruptly Ruptly GmbH is a Russian State media, state-owned video news agency specializing in video-on-demand, based in Berlin, Germany. It is a subsidiary of the Russian State media, state-controlled television network RT (TV network), RT. Ruptly owns th ...

, a subsidiary of the Russian RT network. Maffick Media's

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

accounts were suspended in 2019 after investigations by CNN and

T-online t-online.de is a German news portal, owned and published by digital multi-channel media company Ströer. It reaches over 179 million visits per month coming from 29 million unique visitors. The editorial team is located in Berlin. History In ...

revealed ties to RT and Ruptly. Maffick was defended by RT, which said no official requests to explain the websites were filed with Maffick, and blamed CNN for the controversy, as well as by RT Editor-in-Chief

and

spokesman

Dmitry Peskov Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov ( rus, Дмитрий Сергеевич Песков, p=pʲɪˈskof; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat and the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The pages were restored later that month after disclosing their ownership. For example, ''Soapboxs "About" section now read: "'Soapbox' is a political opinion brand of Maffick, which is owned and operated by Anissa Naouai and Ruptly GmbH, a subsidiary of RT". Naouai then founded Maffick LLC, incorporated in Summer 2019, after moving to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

and reincorporated its former channels in the new company. The disclosure about Russian state ownership was removed from Maffick's accounts after the new incorporation. In June 2020,

labeled Maffick LLC's accounts "state-controlled" due to their connections to RT. The company sued Facebook in the

Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, ...

in July 2020 for defamation and monetary damages from lost internet traffic. Maffick's case was dismissed after it was ruled that the company had not proven permanent damage and had largely not disputed Facebook's allegations. In July 2020,

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

also started labelling Maffick content as “state-affiliated”; Naouai said she would contest this.

Resignation

On February 28, 2022, Naouai terminated Maffick's service agreement with RT and called for peace following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Awards

New York Festivals finalist for Best News Analysis/Commentary for ''In the Now'' on RT (2016).

Personal life

Naouai is married and has two children.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Naouai, Anissa 1982 births Living people American people of Tunisian descent American Muslims Hunter College alumni Moscow Art Theatre Journalists from New York City