Lebanese-Palestinian actress Sirine Saba is joining the faculty at Hogwarts as Professor Pomona Sprout in HBO’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Premiering on OSN+ in the Middle East this Christmas, the series is set to release its first full trailer today, as announced during Tuesday's Back to Hogwarts Showcase in London.
Saba will play the Herbology teacher and head of Hufflepuff House in the series. Miriam Margolyes previously portrayed the character in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.
Saba's casting follows nearly three decades of work in British theatre, alongside roles in television, film and radio.
Who is Sirine Saba?
Saba was born in Beirut in 1975 and lived there until she was eight before moving to Cyprus, where she grew up. She has described herself as half Palestinian and half Lebanese.
While the family lived in Cyprus, her father sometimes brought them to London to see West End productions. Saba recalled being particularly affected by the musical Me and My Girl, and later by shows such as Cats.
Acting had been her ambition since childhood. “Just as far back as I can remember, that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” she told WhatsOnStage in 2006.
Saba trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1998. She left without an agent and initially appeared in small fringe productions before securing a contract with the Royal Shakespeare Company six months later.
A career built on stage
Saba’s first Royal Shakespeare Company season included a performance as Miranda in The Tempest. She went on to appear in the company’s productions of The Winter’s Tale, Pericles, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tales from Ovid and the stage adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children.
She returned to A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the RSC in 2024, playing Titania and Hippolyta opposite Mathew Baynton as Bottom. The production ran in Stratford-upon-Avon before transferring to the Barbican in London.
Her theatre credits also include Phaedra, Another World, Nation and Sparkleshark at the National Theatre, as well as Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, The Winter’s Tale and Antony and Cleopatra at Shakespeare’s Globe.
In 2024, Saba played Zoe in Laura Waldren’s Some Demon at London's Arcola Theatre, a play set in an eating disorder unit. The following year, she portrayed the playwright Sarah Ruhl in the European premiere of Letters from Max at Hampstead Theatre, also in London, opposite Eric Sirakian as the poet Max Ritvo.
What has Sirine Saba appeared in on screen?
Saba has worked regularly on British television. Her credits include Beyond Paradise, Midsomer Murders, Doctor Who, Cleaning Up, EastEnders, Unforgotten and Silent Witness. She also played the recurring character Patricia Ghraoui in the BBC medical drama Holby City.
Her films include Maestro, Exhibition and Death of the Revolution. She was also among the principal cast of Ruth Platt’s 2019 feature The Black Forest, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and was nominated for the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film.
Saba has also recorded dramas, books and short stories for BBC Radio and Audible.
Who is Professor Sprout?
Professor Pomona Sprout teaches students how to care for magical plants in the Hogwarts greenhouses. As head of Hufflepuff, she encourages Neville Longbottom’s aptitude for Herbology and later watches him become a teacher of the subject himself.
Her most important role in the early books comes in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when she cultivates the Mandrakes used to revive those petrified by the basilisk. She later uses her knowledge of magical plants to help defend the school during the Battle of Hogwarts.
Saba’s casting was announced during the Back to Hogwarts Showcase in September 2025. The announcement also confirmed that Warwick Davis would return as Professor Filius Flitwick, while Richard Durden would play Professor Cuthbert Binns and Brid Brennan would appear as Madam Poppy Pomfrey.
Dominic McLaughlin leads the series as Harry Potter, alongside Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley. John Lithgow plays Albus Dumbledore; Janet McTeer is Minerva McGonagall; Paapa Essiedu portrays Severus Snape; and Nick Frost takes the role of Rubeus Hagrid.
The first season adapts Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and will debut at Christmas 2026. Season two, adapting Chamber of Secrets and likely featuring a larger role for Saba, reportedly began filming last month.
Her work connected to Lebanon and Palestine
Alongside Shakespeare and British television, Saba has repeatedly appeared in productions exploring stories from Lebanon, Palestine and the wider Arab world.
She played Luma in Hassan Abdulrazzak’s Baghdad Wedding at Soho Theatre in 2007. The play followed a group of Iraqi expatriates whose lives were transformed by the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
In 2014, Saba joined the cast of Omar El-Khairy’s The Keepers of Infinite Space, about a Palestinian bookshop owner imprisoned by Israeli forces. She played his wife, who attempts to secure his release from outside the prison.
The following year, she appeared as Nahla in Palestinian playwright Dalia Taha’s Fireworks at the Royal Court. Set in a Palestinian town under siege, the play follows two families and their children as they attempt to continue their lives amid air strikes. It was reportedly the first full production by an emerging Palestinian playwright to be developed and staged by the Royal Court.
In July of this year, Saba took part in Voices from Lebanon, a London performance organised by theatre charity Seenaryo. She delivered a piece assembled from WhatsApp conversations among Lebanese women living through war and displacement.
The material recalled aspects of Saba’s own childhood in Beirut, although she questioned the language often used to describe those who endure repeated conflict.
“There is a resilience, but I think Lebanese people are sick of being called resilient – why should we have to be?” she told Hyphen.
