JOSEF AKIKI
actor

Josef Akiki was born in Lebanon in 1994. He’s a college graduate in cinema then in theatre studies.

As a theatre actor, he’s performed in La Aala wa Aasa directed by Mohammad Dayekh and Al Zifaf, Caroline Hatem’s adaptation of The Wedding by Brecht (2019). His role as Saadoun in The Dictator by Issam Mahfouz, directed by Hassan Mouhieddine, won him the prize for Best Actor at the Alexandria Theatre Festival (2019)

In 2022, he performed the lead role in Al Aadiloun, an adaptation of Albert Camus' The Just Assassins, which toured in Beirut, Metn the Bekaa, notably in Baalbeck in the Roman temple of Bacchus. That same year, he co-translated and performed a solo performance, Transit Tripoli, freely adapted from the novel Transit by Anna Seghers. The play opened at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, in partnership with the Schaubühne Theatre and is presently touring in Beirut, Tripoli, Cairo, Tunis and London.

Josef has also appeared in several television series including Taghyir Gaw, directed by Miriam Aboul Aouf, Aal Hadd (2022), directed by Layla Rajha, where he holds a leading role along with the great Syrian actress Soulafa Maamar, and more recently in Wa akhiran (2023), directed by Oussama Abdel Nasser, where he played another leading role along Mona Wassef and Koussay Khawly.

In cinema he’s performed in several short films among which Obsession, directed by Marion Saouda, Capstone, directed by Tarek Al Majzoub, Clair de lune, directed by Jean-Paul Zgheib and On the edge, directed by Nour Al Moujabber. More recently, he starred in award-winning Dwan Kaoukji’s Canary in a coal mine which opened in Clermont-Ferrand and toured in many festivals.

In 2022, he held a main role in the feature film Al Hayba (2022, directed by Samer El Berkawi ), based on the eponymous cult series and released in more than 15 countries, as well as in Disorder, a long-feature film directed by Lucien Bourjeili that just premiered in Al Gouna Festival.

Josef has co-founded in 2024 The Savages Improv, an improvisation group touring all over Lebanon, inspired from “Who’s line is it anyway”.