Mena Massoud

Mena Mansour Massoud (; born September 17, 1991) is an Egyptian Canadian actor known for starring as the title 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 Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2018), Ethan Hart in the Hulu series Reprisal (2019), and Prince Thomas in the Netflix original film The Royal Treatment (2022). Early life Mena Mansour Massoud was born on September 17, 1991, in Cairo to Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christian parents Gorgit and Mansour Massoud. He has two elder sisters, Marian and Margaret, who both work in the medical field. He and his family emigrated to Canada when he was three years old. When asked why his family left Egypt, Massoud stated, "I was born there. We immigrated when I was 3 1/2 years old, to Toronto. But I'm still very, very close to my culture and – back home in Egypt. We're Coptic Christian and my parents just felt like things were getting a little too dangerous when I was growing up in Egypt. They wanted to create a better life for their family so they decided to emigrate to Canada." Massoud grew up in Markham, Ontario, where he attended St. Brother André Catholic High School, where he was the head of the improv team. He later attended the University of Toronto with a major in neuroscience, in the pursuit of becoming a doctor or psychologist. He did not finish this degree, and instead auditioned for theatre schools. Massoud eventually transferred to Ryerson University for their theatre performance program, which he graduated from in 2014. Career Massoud began acting in 2011, with guest appearances on the television series Nikita and Combat Hospital. His role in Nikita, being his first ever on-screen role, was of a terrorist. In an interview with The Daily Beast, it was stated that this role made him set a goal for himself to "find characters who aren’t terrorists or bring negative connotations because of the color of their skin or ethnicity." In 2015, he was cast as Jared Malik in the Canadian-drama series Open Heart, which was cancelled after one season. In 2017, he starred as Ollie Santos in the film Ordinary Days. In 2018, he had a recurring role as Tarek Kassar in the Amazon Prime original series Jack Ryan.