Samira Saraya

Samira Saraya is a Palestinian-Israeli actor, writer, director, spoken word artist, and

LGBTQ activist.

In her early twenties, she began performing as a drag king while working as a

nurse. Saraya's first career breakthrough occurred in 2011 when she landed a

lead role in the booming Israeli TV show Minimum Wage. Saraya won a few

awards in theater and cinema. She won the Best Script award for her short

Polygraph in 2018 at TLVFest.

Saraya has a graduate degree in directing from Tel Aviv University and made

her directing debut with Polygraph in 2020, which features the first openly

lesbian Arab character in cinema.