Egyptian-Palestinian actress May Calamawy joins cast of Marvel's ‘Moon Knight’

The Bahrain-raised 'Ramy' star is joining Oscar Isaac in the Disney+ series

May Calamawy is joining the cast of Marvel's 'Moon Knight'. Getty Images 

Egyptian-Palestinian actress May Calamawy is set to join the cast of Disney+'s Moon Knight.

Calamawy, best known for her performance in hit comedy Ramy, will star opposite Oscar Isaac in the Marvel comic book adaption.

Details of the Bahrain-raised actress's exact role are yet to be announced; she is currently the only cast member to be listed with Isaac on the Moon Knight IMDb page.

Calamawy is not the only Egyptian talent to be attached to the project, with Clash writer Mohamed Diab set to direct the six-part series, along with Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson.

Filming is scheduled to start in Budapest in March.

Who is May Calamawy?

The actress is the daughter of an Egyptian father and Jordanian-Palestinian mother. She was born in Bahrain and raised between the Gulf country and Houston, Texas. She now lives between New York and Los Angeles.

She has starred in Emmy-winning series Ramy as Dena Hassan, the sister of the titular protagonist. She has also starred in The Brave and The Long Road Home.

In November, she spoke to Harper's Bazaar Arabia about her family and upbringing.

"When I was 27 and leaving Dubai to study acting, my dad and my brother were so worried. They would say, 'Why? You’re at an age when all your friends are getting married.' And I really tried. After my mum passed away, I tried to do the ‘right’ thing, find the ‘right’ man and start a family … but I just felt dead inside. I didn’t feel like myself, and I was asking, ‘What is that? I’m just not listening to my true calling,’” she said.

She has also spoken about writing for and about Arab women, while avoiding the pitfalls of being typecast.

"There are so many stories [about Arab women] that need to be told, but for some reason we get put into one box," she told Harper's Bazaar Arabia. 

Who is Moon Knight?

Moon Knight has taken on many different personas and aliases over the years after he was first introduced in the comic Werewolf by Night #32 back in August 1975, created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin.

In the comics, Marc Spector is a former boxer, CIA agent and mercenary. When he and his employer, Raoul Bushman, come across an archaeological dig that Bushman wants to loot, Spector tries to stop him, but is attacked and left for dead by his employer.

Minutes from death, he is approached by the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, who offers him a second chance at life in exchange for becoming his avatar on Earth.

Resurrected and with new superhuman abilities, he returns to the US and invests the money he made as a mercenary to make his fortune and became the crime-fighting Moon Knight. His additional identities include that of millionaire Steven Grant and taxi driver Jake Lockley.