Any new TV show is always a throw of the dice. "You never really know how it’s gonna land,” says Dina Shihabi.
Fortunately, the Saudi actress has just seen her latest screen venture turn out to be the equivalent of a double six.
Archive 81, a smart, unsettling, found-footage horror arrived on Netflix with little fanfare, before effortlessly gliding to number one on the streaming platform.
“I was surprised, for sure,” the 32-year-old admits, bright and early, over the telephone from Los Angeles.
“Because there wasn’t really push for it. It really just arrived on the platform and resonated with people. And it seems like by word of mouth, that’s really spread like wildfire.
"So that feels in a way better. No one was inundated with our faces. They just found it on their own. And so I feel like [viewers have] a very genuine love for the show.”
It also feels rather fitting that fans might discover Archive 81 — and Shihabi — on their own. Loosely taken from the podcast of the same name, the show sees Mamoudou Athie play Dan Turner, a restoration expert for the Museum of the Moving Image who is employed to sift through some ageing fire-damaged VHS tapes. On them are recordings made by Shihabi’s graduate student character Melody Pendras, who years earlier documented events surrounding a mysterious fire in an apartment complex.
Although Dan and Melody are in parallel storylines, Shihabi immediately felt the connection. “I was really drawn to this … these two protagonists, that were both grappling with the same kind of loneliness and longing, and wanting for deep connection and a deep sense of who they are. They both grew up without families, essentially. And so they are both after the same thing, and I found that so moving and so beautiful. That really resonated with me deeply. That deep sense of longing and wanting to connect.”
With shades of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and even the recent British horror movie Censor, Archive 81 reeks of atmosphere. You can even see it as a metaphor for the virtual encounters that we are now locked into, post pandemic, as Dan spends hours studying Melody. “Trying to connect to someone through a computer screen, that felt really real,” says Shihabi, who auditioned for her role, shot the show and saw it released all during Covid-19.
When it comes to horror, Shihabi will watch the genre — under certain conditions. “I get really scared so I can’t watch it at night,” she says. “My scariest memory of watching a horror film was watching The Exorcist when I was four years old.”
William Friedkin’s tale of a young girl possessed “scarred me for life”, she says. “Especially [as] I watched it in Saudi Arabia, where you grew up with Islam, and you’re really made scared of the devil. And then I watched The Exorcist. And I was convinced I was gonna get possessed.”
A huge lover of TV and movies in her youth, the Riyadh-born Shihabi spent hours watching whatever she could get her hands on. “That was my meditation,” she says.
School years weren’t easy, though. “Distracted and disruptive in class”, she was put up for a school musical by a fourth-grade teacher in an effort to stimulate her. But acting felt an impossibility, given she’d grown up with a high-pitched voice. “People always laughed about it and made fun of it. Once I started kind of getting more self-conscious about my voice, I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t the thing for me. I can’t do this if I don’t feel comfortable speaking.’”
Instead, she found dance as a means of expression after her family moved to Dubai, discovering a class run by renowned dancer and choreographer Sharmilla Kamte at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre. “I remember walking in and it felt like fate … this weird body feeling. I’d never felt that before. But I just knew that was my destiny in some way. I just walked through the door of my future. I went home that night and I told my parents that I was going to become a dancer.” Within a year, she was dancing professionally in Kamte’s company.
If an incredible project came my way from the Middle East, I would jump at the opportunity
Dina Shihabi,
actress
Gradually, Shihabi’s confidence grew with acting, something she pursued in tandem with dance when she moved to New York aged 18. “I would take acting classes during the day and dance classes at night,” she explains. Before long, she scored her first gig, dancing on the sketch show Saturday Night Live, and began auditioning for acting schools. Places at Juilliard and NYU’s Graduate Acting programme were awarded. Impressively, she was the first Saudi woman to be accepted by both these institutions.
After graduating, she remained in the States, although has yet to work in the Mena region. “If an incredible project came my way from the Middle East, I would jump at the opportunity,” she says.
Instead, it’s been a steady rise for Shihabi through the American television industry. Small roles in Daredevil and Ramy have been interspersed with more significant parts, in Netflix sci-fi Altered Carbon and Amazon Prime action-drama Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, in which she featured opposite John Krasinski in the first season.
“What’s beautiful about this is that you’re always a student,” she says. “You’re always learning. And that’s part of what I love about it. Things happen that always surprise you. And you always learn things about yourself that cause you to grow and reassess, and make better decisions. And I think there’s a lot of failure in this business. While you’re doing these things. You take a couple of steps forward, a couple steps back … it’s ever changing. And it’s such a playground to test yourself and push yourself and get out of your comfort zone.”
She’s already shot her next mini-series, Painkiller, a drama about the origins of the opioid crisis co-starring Matthew Broderick and shot by director Peter Berg. “It’s very different from Archive 81,” she says. “I mean, that’s the career I want. And that’s what’s happened naturally — every part, every project I’ve gotten to do, has been completely different. I’ve never done the same thing twice. And so I hope to continue to do that because I think that’s what excites me most — to shape-shift.”
Archive 81 is available on Netflix
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Seattle from Dh5,555 return, including taxes. Portland is a 260 km drive from Seattle and Emirates offers codeshare flights to Portland with its partner Alaska Airlines.
The car
Hertz (www.hertz.ae) offers compact car rental from about $300 per week, including taxes. Emirates Skywards members can earn points on their car hire through Hertz.
Parks and accommodation
For information on Crater Lake National Park, visit www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm . Because of the altitude, large parts of the park are closed in winter due to snow. While the park’s summer season is May 22-October 31, typically, the full loop of the Rim Drive is only possible from late July until the end of October. Entry costs $25 per car for a day. For accommodation, see www.travelcraterlake.com. For information on Umpqua Hot Springs, see www.fs.usda.gov and https://soakoregon.com/umpqua-hot-springs/. For Bend, see https://www.visitbend.com/.
THE BIO
Favourite car: Koenigsegg Agera RS or Renault Trezor concept car.
Favourite book: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes or Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Biggest inspiration: My husband Nik. He really got me through a lot with his positivity.
Favourite holiday destination: Being at home in Australia, as I travel all over the world for work. It’s great to just hang out with my husband and family.
Full list of brands available for Instagram Checkout
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Anastasia Beverly Hills @anastasiabeverlyhills
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Burberry @burberry
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H&M @hm
Huda Beauty @hudabeautyshop
KKW @kkwbeauty
Kylie Cosmetics @kyliecosmetics
MAC Cosmetics @maccosmetics
Michael Kors @michaelkors
NARS @narsissist
Nike @niketraining & @nikewomen
NYX Cosmetics @nyxcosmetics
Oscar de la Renta @oscardelarenta
Ouai Hair @theouai
Outdoor Voices @outdoorvoices
Prada @prada
Revolve @revolve
Uniqlo @uniqlo
Warby Parker @warbyparker
Zara @zara
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Tottenham 0-1 Ajax, Tuesday
Second leg
Ajax v Tottenham, Wednesday, May 8, 11pm
Game is on BeIN Sports
Brolliology: A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature
By Marion Rankine
Melville House
Biog
Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara
He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada
Father of two sons, grandfather of six
Plays golf once a week
Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family
Walks for an hour every morning
Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India
2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business
Mobile phone packages comparison
Empty Words
By Mario Levrero
(Coffee House Press)
Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
MATCH INFO
Burnley 0
Man City 3
Raheem Sterling 35', 49'
Ferran Torres 65'
SCORES
Multiply Titans 81-2 in 12.1 overs
(Tony de Zorzi, 34)
bt Auckland Aces 80 all out in 16 overs
(Shawn von Borg 4-15, Alfred Mothoa 2-11, Tshepo Moreki 2-16).
The bio:
Favourite holiday destination: I really enjoyed Sri Lanka and Vietnam but my dream destination is the Maldives.
Favourite food: My mum’s Chinese cooking.
Favourite film: Robocop, followed by The Terminator.
Hobbies: Off-roading, scuba diving, playing squash and going to the gym.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
More from Armen Sarkissian
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan 2 (Vecino 65', Barella 83')
Verona 1 (Verre 19' pen)
Abramovich London
A Kensington Palace Gardens house with 15 bedrooms is valued at more than £150 million.
A three-storey penthouse at Chelsea Waterfront bought for £22 million.
Steel company Evraz drops more than 10 per cent in trading after UK officials said it was potentially supplying the Russian military.
Sale of Chelsea Football Club is now impossible.
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
Everybody%20Loves%20Touda
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nabil%20Ayouch%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nisrin%20Erradi%2C%20Joud%20Chamihy%2C%20Jalila%20Talemsi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
The bio
His favourite book - 1984 by George Orwell
His favourite quote - 'If you think education is expensive, try ignorance' by Derek Bok, Former President of Harvard
Favourite place to travel to - Peloponnese, Southern Greece
Favourite movie - The Last Emperor
Favourite personality from history - Alexander the Great
Role Model - My father, Yiannis Davos
The Porpoise
By Mark Haddon
(Penguin Random House)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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