Ghassan Masoud is one of the most respected Syrian actors, that have chosen his roles wisely since the beginning of his career.
Masoud has been defending the image of Islam in many of his roles, most prominently his role in the famous Hollywood movie "Kingdom of Heaven" as the great Salah Eddine.

Since the beginning of the "revolution" in Syria, he's been under the radar and has decided to keep silent about the tragic situation there.
He left Syria, not to run away, but to devote himself to raising his children in peace, especially after getting threats from what he calls "takfirioun", who are extremists who call themselves Muslims.

Enjoy these photos of Syrian actor Samer Ismail.
Some of the photos are from the shooting set of Omar and some are from different TV stations interviews such as MBC.

Have you heard of an actor called Samer Ismail?
Well, you might not have heard of him, but you sure know him as Omar in the epic TV drama "Omar"!
Samer Ismail is a new Syrian actor and his role as the great Islamic Calif Omar is his first major role.

Samer auditioned for the series but was not aware that he was going to be chosen as Omar himself!
When Director Hatem Ali finally opened up to Samer and revealed to him that he was going to play Omar, Samer was shocked! He became unable to sleep and became aware that this could be the most important role of his life!

Syrian actor Khaled Taja has passed away after struggling with illness. He was 73.
Taja suffered from Lung cancer, which he got because of his appetite for smoking!
Taja was nicknamed "The Arab Anthony Quinn" and he sure was just as a legend as the latter was.
His first role was as a truck driver and he never complained about any character given to him since. He played all sorts of roles and was a giant in even the smallest one.

Some of the famous series he participated in were Al Taghriba Al Falastinia, Ikhwat Al Turab, Ayam Shamia, Al Zir Salem and Yawmiat Mudir 3am ... just to name a few.

He will be greatly missed and will surely leave a huge empty spot in the Syrian drama scene.

May he rest in peace.

Syrian actress Jihan Abdel Atheem is always beautiful on screen.
She's tiny and cute, sensitive and very girly. She also look very natural ... but what do you think of her in this new photo above?!

It's true, she looks very nice and the make-up suits her, but doesn't she look kind of artificial?
Isn't the make-up a tad bit too heavy?

During the past few days, news of Syrian actor Yasser Al Athmah’s death circulated the net and created some sort of a frenzy!

Some reports claimed that Al Athmah (or Alzma) passed away after a deliberate car crash that was meant to kill him because of being Anti-Assad!

Others only reported that his car crashed on the way to Latakia.

Well, it turns out that the news is no more than rumors and Al Athmah is alive and well.
He confirmed the news of his well being to many newspapers and stated that this is only another rumor that has targeted him throughout the years, the last one related to his marriage being on the rocks!

Two young Syrian stars are competing for the hearts of female viewers this Ramadan; Tayem Hasan and Qusai Khouli.
Tayem is the star of a fictitious story entitled "3abed Karaman", while Qusai is a blind hottie, who has a talent for the piano in "Al 3ishq Al Haram"!

Which series are you watching and who do you like more, Tayem or Qusai?

What does Duraid Lahham think of what's going on in Syria right now?
I ask this "timely" question because of his latest TV series "Khirbeh".
The comedy series, which is set for this Ramadan, tells the story of a little village in the Syrian countryside and the troubles the villagers face.
The villagers are divided into two families, each always planning to get the other into trouble!
Laith Hajjo, the series director, states that this series comes just in time as the Arab world is going through many changes and has seen many revolutions!

Wednesday the 13th of July 2011 marked the end of a long journey for a talented actor, the late Hassan Dakak passed away at the age of 56 in the early hours of the morning suffering from a severe heart attack. Allah yerhamo!

The baker from Bab el Hara and the star from Maraya prepared a lot of series for this Ramadan where we will see his final work in Alzaeem, Maraya2011, Rejal al Ezz, Yawmeyat modir Am 2 and the latest series for Adel Emam Ferkat Naji Attalla.

How would you describe the use of a little boy as a tool to support a president or head of state? Pathetic and shameful ... I could conjure up a whole lot of other words too!

Imagine that Syrian actors Sulaf Fawakherji and Wael Ramadan have made their son perform a song that supports Syrian president Bashar Al Assad!

No matter what we all think of the Syrian regime, and no matter to whom the actors loyalty goes to, it's no excuse to get children involved.
Hamza and a bunch of other kids, recorded a song called "Wladek Ya Suria" that shows how the children are in support of the current regime.

After the recent incidents in Syria, Syrian TV stars decided to make their voices heard as well and become advocates of change and peace!

Stars like Mona Wasef, Bassam Kousa, Jamal Sulaiman and Basem Yakhor among many others have released a statement in which they support all peaceful demonstrations that call for dignity, freedom and change for the better ... they also refused any sort of violence and any interference in Syria's affairs that would lead to chaos.

The statement also sent warm condolences to the families of the people who died in the tragic events throughout the past week.

What a delightful consideration of Arabesque radio to help raise awareness in Syria about keeping their environment clean.

A large number of famous Syrian celebrities gathered in Damascus and roamed in three of the most crowded places of the capital. Among them were Doreid Laham, Salim and Yara Sabri, Bassem Yakhor, Shokran Mortaja and many more.

The stars shared paper bags along the passing vehicles and gave many of them a talk on how important it is to keep the environment clean, the celebrities later ended their day in the heart of the Syrian Capital in ‘Masrah Teshreen’ where there was a new song released for the occasion ‘hat edak wel lha’ni’ and finally a large number of balloons were released to decorate Damascus sky with beautiful colorful balloons with special messages from the stars written on them.

Photos of Syrian celebrities in Damascus talking to people

Bab el Hara star Samer Al Masri talked about his new Ramadan series, the character he’s playing and the roles he has been getting.

‘Dabour’ the upcoming Ramadan series that Samer will star in. Samer said that the character he is playing in this series is nothing like ‘Abu Shehab’ or ‘Abu Hijaz’. He added that he will be playing the role of a ‘hamamati’ who will be caring for pigeons. Samer really likes the role and finds it quite interesting as he already knows a lot about pigeons. Furthermore, he said that he always studies the characters he plays to portray them in the best way possible.

In an upcoming Ramadan series, splendid Syrian actress Sulaf Fawakherji portrays the great Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Sulaf explained that she doesn’t mind people comparing her to any of the actresses that portrayed Cleopatra in the past. Sulaf continues by saying that out of the 7 or more movies made that portrayed the life of Cleopatra only one was a success which was the 1963 movie acted by the lovely American actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Sulaf also explained that it will be hard to compare the series with any work done in the past about the life of Cleopatra because it focuses more on the oriental feminine side of Cleopatra.