List of Famous people born in Cairo Governorate
Mena Massoud
Mena Massoud is an Egyptian-born Canadian actor, comedian and singer known for starring as the titular character in the Disney fantasy film Aladdin (2019). He also starred as Jared Malik in the Canadian drama series Open Heart (2015), Tarek Kassar in the Amazon Prime series Jack Ryan (2018), and as Ethan Hart in the Hulu series Reprisal (2019).
Jean Messiha
Jean Messiha is an Egyptian-born French economist and politician. A former senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, he joined the National Front (FN) in 2016, when he became spokesman of Horaces, a group of high-ranking civil servants and business executives who meet once a month to discuss the party platform. He stood as a candidate in the 2017 legislative election in the fourth constituency of Aisne. In 2020, he left the party to assume the presidency of the newly-founded Apollo Institute think tank.
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian terrorist known for being the leader of terrorist group al-Qaeda since June 2011, succeeding Osama bin Laden following his death, and is a current or former member and senior official of Islamist organizations which have orchestrated attacks in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and also some in North America and Europe. In 2012, he called on Muslims to kidnap Western tourists in Muslim countries.
Dalida
Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, professionally known as Dalida, was a Italian born French naturalized singer and actress, born in Egypt to Italian parents. She won the Miss Egypt beauty contest in 1954 and began a 31-year singing career in 1956, selling 170 million albums and singles worldwide. She died by suicide in 1987.
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi is an Egyptian politician who is the sixth and current President of Egypt, former Director of Military Intelligence, former Minister of Defence, and former General. Starting 10 February 2019, Sisi also began serving a one-year term as Chairperson of the African Union, which concluded in 2020.
Yasmin Abdel Aziz
Yasmin Abdel Aziz is an Egyptian actress.
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004 and President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) from 1994 to 2004. Ideologically an Arab nationalist, he was a founding member of the Fatah political party, which he led from 1959 until 2004.
Ahmed Shawqi
Ahmed Shawqi, nicknamed the Prince of Poets, was an Arabic poet laureate, an Egyptian poet and dramatist who pioneered the modern Egyptian literary movement, most notably introducing the genre of poetic epics to the Arabic literary tradition.
Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Taha Hussein, to explore themes of existentialism. He published 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, hundreds of op-ed columns for Egyptian newspapers, and five plays over a 70-year career. Many of his works have been made into Egyptian and foreign films.
Soad Hosny
Soad Hosny was an Egyptian actress born in Cairo. She was known as the "Cinderella of Egyptian cinema" and one of the most influential actresses in the Middle East and the Arab world. She ascended to stardom at the end of the 1950s, performing in more than 83 films between 1959 and 1991. A majority of her films were shot in the 1960s and 1970s. Her final screen appearance was in the 1991 film, The Shepherd and the Women, directed by her ex-husband, Ali Badrakhan.