Yousef "Joe" Sweid (, ; born 22 June 1976) is an

Arab-Israeli The Arab citizens of Israel form the country's largest ethnic minority. Their community mainly consists of former Mandatory Palestine citizens (and their descendants) who continued to inhabit the territory that was acknowledged as Israeli by ...

actor and dancer.

Early and personal life

Yousef Sweid was born in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, Israel, to a Christian-Arab family. He is a graduate of the theater department at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

. Sweid was married to Jewish-Israeli Yael Ronen, a director at the

Cameri Theatre The Cameri Theatre (, ''HaTeatron HaKameri''), established in 1944 in Tel Aviv, is one of the leading theatres in Israel, and is housed at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center. History The Cameri Theatre was founded with the purpose of promoting ...

. 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 Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. 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 Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

. 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

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 Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph S ...

, a town with mixed population in Israel. In 2016, he played in one episode of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

'' 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 The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

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 Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

(starring role) * 2008 : ''Restless'' : Arik * 2009 : ''

Agora The agora (; , romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Ancient Greece, Greek polis, city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center ...

'' : Peter, a fanatic

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

leader in 4th-century

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

* 2011 : ''

Homeland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

'' (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 A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misrep ...

'' : Amir Cohen (Amir Al-Hamati) * 2016 : ''The Writer'' (Israeli TV show) : Kateb * 2016: ''

'' : Meereenese freedman * 2018: '' Tel Aviv on Fire'' : General Yehuda Edelman * 2019: '' The Spy'' : George Seif * 2020: '' Baghdad Central'' (TV Mini-Series 2020) * 2020: ''

Unorthodox Unorthodox may refer to: Music * Unorthodox (band), an American doom metal band * ''Unorthodox'' (Edge of Sanity album), 1992 * ''Unorthodox'' (Snow Tha Product album), 2011 * "Unorthodox" (Joey Badass song), 2013 * "Unorthodox" (Wretch 32 so ...

'' (Netflix Series 2020) Sweid also animates the puppet ''Mahboob'' ("beloved" in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

) in ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'' on Israel's Hop! channel.

References

External links

*
Yousef Sweid on 'The Champion'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweid, Yousef 1976 births Living people Israeli male dancers Israeli dancers Tel Aviv University alumni Israeli male film actors Israeli male stage actors Israeli male television actors Israeli puppeteers People from Haifa Israeli emigrants to Germany Israeli Arab Christians Israeli Arab actors