Ahmed Mohamed Salah El Din El Sakka (Arabic: أحمد محمد صلاح الدين السقا; born March 1, 1973) is an Egyptian action actor. The son of theatre director Salah El Sakka, he began his career with uncredited roles in a lot of films and television series, until he made his breakthrough role in the Egyptian comedy films An Upper Egyptian at the American University (1998) and Hamam in Amsterdam (1999).

Ahmed El Sakka
أحمد السقا
Born
Ahmed Mohamed Salah El Din El Sakka

(1969-03-01) March 1, 1969 (age 55)
NationalityEgypt Egyptian
Other namesThe Knight of Egyptian Cinema
Alma materAcademy of Arts, Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts
OccupationActor
Years active1993–present
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Spouse
Maha Al-Saghir
(m. 1999)
Children3

El Sakka is known for action roles and doing dangerous scenes without any double. He starred in the romantic comedy Short, Fanelah & Cap (2000), the adventure film Africano (2001) and the action films Mafia (2002), Tito (2004) and Italy War (2005). He also starred in the romantic drama About Love and Passion (2006), the biographical film The Island (2007), the actions Taymour and Shafika (2007), Ibrahim Labyad (2009) and The Dealer (2010), and the comedy drama The Consul's Son (2010).

El Sakka also starred in the comedy film Papa (2012), the action film The Benefit (2012), the sequel of The Island, The Island 2 (2014), the thriller film 30 Years Ago (2016), the action film Forced Escape (2017) and the drama film 200 Pounds (2021).

El Sakka starred in a lot of television series, including the drama Red Lines (2012), the actions Roundtrip (2015) and The Black Horse (2017), and the dramas Son of the Poor (2019) and Offspring of Strangers (2021).

El Sakka made his debut theatre role in Khodlak A'leb and participated in Alabanda (1998), Afroto (2000) and That's Ok (2003).

Early life edit

El Sakka studied in Academy of Arts and graduated from The Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in 1993.

Career edit

Early in his acting career, he appeared in popular series like Al Nawa (1991) with Fardous Abdel Hamid, Alf Leila Wa Leila (One Thousand and One Nights, 1995) and Nesf Rabeea El-Akhar (1996) with Yehia El-Fakharany, W Man Allazi La Yoheb Fatma? (And Who Does not Love Fatima?, 1996) with Ahmed Abdelaziz and Shereen Seif El-Nasr, Tarweed El-Sharesa (Taming the Fierce, 1996) with Athar El-Hakim, a major role in Rodda Qalbi (1998), the adaptation of the original film Rodda Qalbi (Return My Heart, 1957), playing the role of Hussein, which was previously played by Salah Zulfikar in the original film, and a major role in Zawag Ala Wark Solifan (1998). El Sakka also appeared in a lot of films such as Leila Sakhina (A Hot Night, 1995) with Nour El-Sherif and Ayam El-Sadat (The Days of Sadat, 2001) with Ahmed Zaki.

The role that introduced him to a large audience was a co-starring role with actor Mohamed Henedi in Sa'edi fe el gama'a el amrekiya (An Upper Egyptian at the American University, 1998). It is an Arabic movie about a farmer who entered the American University in the city. The following year, he co-starred with Mohamed Henedi in Hamam fi Amsterdam (Hamam in Amsterdam, 1999), but in a larger role of the tough guy, which seemed to be his role in most of his hit movies afterwards. El Sakka also co-starred with Henedi in the two plays Alabanda (1998) and Afroto (1999). El Sakka's first starring role in cinema was in Short W Fanelah W Cap (Short, Fanelah & Cap, 2000) with Sherif Mounir, Ahmed Eid, Dalia Mostafa and the newcomer at that time Nour, achieving a huge financial success,[1] with El Sakka winning Best Actor Award at Cairo International Film Festival. In 2001, he starred in Africano with Mona Zaki, which made a huge success[2] and grossed 8 million EGP.[3] El Sakka made a cameo role in Rasha Gareaa (Dare to give, 2001) and voiced Milo in the Arabic version of the animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). His next films were all action movies where he played the main character. Probably, the most famous of these movies is Mafia (2002), which was a big success for El Sakka and is considered by many as one of the best action actors in the history of Egyptian movies. The film, which also starred Mostafa Shaban, Ahmed Rizk and Mona Zaki, grossed about 13 million EGP.[3] In 2003, El Sakka co-starred in the play Keda Ok (That's Ok) with Sherif Mounir, Hany Ramzy, Mona Zaki and Yasmin Abdulaziz. He made a starring role in Tito (2004) with Hanan Tork and Khaled Saleh, which grossed 11.5 million EGP.[3] He made a guest role in Leqaa ala al hawaa (2004), starring Yousra, and a voice role in the beginning of Sana Oula Nasb (First Year of Deception, 2004).

In 2005, El Sakka starred in Harb Atalia (Italy War) with Nelly Karim and grossed about 13 million EGP.[3] also he was a cameo in Hamada Yal'ab (Hamada is Playing, 2005). In 2006, he starred with Mona Zaki again in An El Ashk We El Hawa (About Love and Passion), which also starred Menna Shalabi and Tarek Lotfy. The film was a Box-office bomb and grossed only 9 million EGP.[3] El Sakka appeared in the part 1 and 2 of Lahazat Harega (Critical Moments, 2007) and in 2007, he starred in 2 films, Taymour W Shafika (Taymour and Shafika) and El-Jazeera (The Island). In the first one, he played a private security guard and the film grossed 17 million EGP, and in the last one, he played The Outlaw Mansour El Hefny, who challenged a corrupt policeman, and the film grossed 22 million EGP.[3] El-Jazeera, which based on the story of The Emperor of An Nikhaylah, Ezzat Hanafi, received an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film nomination but did not win.[4][5] In 2009, El Sakka played the titular role of Ibrahim Labyad, which was one of the Egyptian «popular culture films» that received criticism, praise, and mixed reviews about the nature of society in it.[6] Although it was criticized for the scenes of blood and bullying, the film grossed 12 million EGP.[3] It was screened at the International Market of Cannes Film Festival.[7]

In 2010, El Sakka appeared in 2 movies, Al-Dealer (The Dealer) and Ibn Alqonsol (The Consul's Son). Al-Dealer, which also starred Khaled El Nabawy and Mai Selim, grossed only 5 million EGP in 5 weeks before its drawing from cinema.[3] Ibn Alqonsol, starred El Sakka, Ghada Adel and Khaled Saleh, grossed 14 million EGP.[3] El Sakka was a cameo in Sameer W Shaheer W Baheer (Sameer, Shaheer & Baheer) and Ayza Atgawez (I Want to Get Married). He starred in Khotout Hamra (Red Lines, 2012), which was released in Ramadan. In 2012, he starred opposite Ahmed Ezz in Al-Maslaha (The Benefit) and the film made 21 million EGP.[3] The film was based on a story happened in 2010 in Sinai.[8] El Sakka starred alongside Dorra in Papa in 2012, grossing 12 million EGP.[3] In 2014, he reprised his role as Mansour El Hefny in El-Jazeera 2 (The Island 2), which grossed 36 million EGP, making it the highest-grossing film in the history of Egyptian cinema at that time, until the release of Laf We Dawaran (Flimflam, 2016), which grossed 43 million EGP.[3]

In 2015, El Sakka starred in Thahab Wa Awda (Roundtrip) and released in Ramadan. Thahab Wa Awda, which also starred Injy El Mokkaddem, Magdy Kamel, Yasser Galal, Jamil Awwad and his wife Juliet Awwad, was based on one of intelligence stories that happened in 2012.[9] In 2016, El Sakka co-starred with Sherif Mounir, Nour, Mona Zaki and Mervat Amin in Min Talatin Sana (30 Years Ago) and the film grossed more than 23 million EGP.[3] El Sakka's 2017 movie Horob Edterary (Forced Escape) grossed 55 million EGP.[10] It also starred Amir Karara, Ghada Adel and Mostafa Khater. In Ramadan 2017, El Sakka starred in Alhisan Al'aswad (The Black Horse), which also starred Yasmine Sabri and Shery Adel. He appeared in Harb Karmouz (Karmouz War) and Rahim, both in 2018. He starred in 2019 Ramadan series Weld El-Ghalaba (Son of the Poor) with Mai Omar and Injy El Mokkaddem.

El Sakka co-presented with Razan Moughrabi the 2020 Ramadan program Eghlab El Sakka (Beat El Sakka). He co-starred with Amir Karara in Nasl El Aghrab (Offspring of Strangers, 2021),[11] which had a huge criticism and ridicule, making the United Media Services stop dealing with Mohamed Sami, the director and writer of the series.[12] El Sakka played a major role in 200 Geneh (200 pounds, 2021), after 4 years of absence from the cinema since his movie Horob Edterary (2017). 200 Geneh grossed 8 million EGP only.[13] El Sakka received GFF's Career Achievement Award at the fifth El Gouna Film Festival.[14][15][16] In 2022, he starred in Al Ekhtiar 3 (The Choice 3) alongside Ahmed Ezz, Karim Abdel Aziz and Yasser Galal.

Personal life edit

El Sakka married the daughter of the make-up artist and hairdresser Mohamed Al Sagheer, Maha Al Sagheer, on November 17, 1999. They had 3 children, 2 sons and a daughter.

El Sakka known for his love of horses and their breeding, as he owns a lot of horses and has an excellent skills of horse riding and training it. He has Arabian horse stable in Nazlet El-Semman.[17] His hobbies are: horse riding,[18] shooting, football, singing,[19][20] writing songs[21][22][23][24][25] and traveling.

El Sakka is a Stunt performer and he got injured in a lot of his films. He declared in Lamis Elhadidy's program Kelma Akhira that while shooting Short W Fanelah W Cap and after he jumped in the sea, the sharks would have eaten him. He stayed fixed in his place in the water and didn't swim; because the shark think that the human who swims is similar to the dolphin, so it will attack on him. He continued that he remained standing in the water until they shot the scene.[1] While shooting Mafia, he cut off his cruciate ligament and got a lot of wounds because of many sand dunes in a mountain, in addition, he almost drowned in a scene, according to what he said in Sahebat El-Sa'da. In Africano and while making an ambush to the lion by tying a slaughtered chicken with a rope connected to a hole where the lion was supposed to fall, then El Sakka will come down to him, the rope that tied him up while going down was almost cut off and he almost died. And in Ukraine while shooting Taymour W Shafika, the fire caught his clothes. El Sakka lost temporarily his eyesight while shooting El-Jazeera, due to splinters from starting pistol entered his left eye, resulting an explosion in his eyeball and its bleeding. He was taken to hospital for an urgent surgery and after a few days, he began regaining his eyesight gradually. While shooting Ibrahim Labyad at the location of National Democratic Party in Cairo Citadel, El Sakka got injured in his foot when he came down the stairs, because of a sprain in his ankle, making the filming of the movie was postponed. The scene of his body set on fire was really, as he was wearing a suit that isolate the fire for 11 seconds. After 11 seconds, he didn't hear the scene designer telling him to get down on the ground, so the scene designer hit him on the head until he fell to the ground and put out the fire. Marwan Hamed, the director of the film, wanted to re-shoot the scene, but in a simpler way. After shooting El-Dealer, El Sakka discovered a cruciate ligament injury that required an emergency surgery, but he was recovered after a while. Also in El-Jazeera 2, he was badly injured.[26]

Filmography edit

Year Movie Role Notes
1994 Hoda Wa Maali Al Wazeer
1995 A Hot Night Cars Ostler
1995 The Ferryman Salah
1996 Harmonica Saif
1997 Guard Duty Mohsen
1998 Saeedi Fi El Gamaa El Amrekiia Ali
1999 Hammam Fi Amsterdam Adriano
2000 Short we Fanellah we Cap Khalid Kabo
2001 Days of Sadat Atef El Sadat Cameo
2001 Africano Bader
2001 Dare to give Cameo
2001 Atlantis: The Lost Empire Milo Arabic version
2002 Mafia Hussain/Tarek
2004 Tito Taher "Tito" Abdel Hai Saleem
2004 First Year of Deception Voice role
2005 Harb Italia Yassin Tag Yassin
2005 Hamada Yal'ab Cameo
2006 An El Eshq Wel Hawa Omar
2007 Taymour We Shafika Taymour
2007 El Gezeira Mansour El Hefni
2008 Ala Ganb Ya Asta Cameo
2009 Ibrahim Labyad Ibrahim Labyad
2010 El Dealer Yousef El Sheikh
2010 Ibn El Konsol Essam/Nasser Fathi Al-Samak
2010 Sameer, Shaheer & Baheer Cameo
2012 Al Maslaha Hamza
2012 Baba Dr.Hazem
2013 Over My Dead Body Cameo
2014 El Gezeira 2 Mansour El Hefni
2016 30 Years Ago Emad
2017 Horrob Edtrary Adham
2018 Karmouz War The judge Cameo
2019 Sab'e Alboromba himself Cameo
2019 The Money The bodybuilding coach Cameo
2021 200 pounds Hassan
2022 The Spider Hassan
2024 El-Serb Ali El-Masry
2024 Libon group
Key
Denotes films that have not yet been released

Awards and nominations edit

Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref.
2002 The Feature Film Festival Award Best Actor Africano Won [27]
2008 The National Egyptian Film Festival Award Best Actor The Island Won [27]
2008 Academy Award Best International Feature Film The Island Nominated [28]
2014 Dear Guest Award Best Actor of 2014 The Island 2 Won [29]
2016 Dear Guest Award Best Actor of 2016 30 Years Ago Won [30]
2017 The National Egyptian Film Festival Award Best Actor 30 Years Ago Nominated [31]
2019 Dear Guest Award Best Television Actor Son of the Poor Won [32]
2019 Arab Star Festival Award Best Actor of the Arab World Son of the Poor Won [33]

References edit

  1. ^ a b هلال, هديل (October 20, 2021). "أنقذ نفسك هذا قرش.. السقا يحكي موقفا خطيرا تعرض له أثناء تصوير فيلم شورت وفانلة وكاب". Al-Shorouk. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  2. ^ "افريكانو" جديد أحمد السقا، قصة بسيطة يدعمها المكان والاخراج المتميز". Al-Bayan. September 19, 2001. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m جودة, مي (3 July 2017). "بالأرقام- تعرف على إيرادات أفلام أحمد السقا بالسينما.. هذا الفيلم الأكثر إيرادات حتى الآن". في الفن. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  4. ^ "ترشيح "الجزيرة" لجائزة أوسكار أفضل فيلم أجنبي". Al Riyadh. September 18, 2008. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  5. ^ التركى, محمود (September 16, 2008). "فيلم "الجزيرة" فى مهرجان الأوسكار". Youm7. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  6. ^ العزازي, إسلام (January 22, 2021). "إبراهيم الأبيض والهروب من نمط البلطجة". Eda't. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  7. ^ "إبراهيم الأبيض في مهرجان كان". beirutobserver. May 16, 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  8. ^ الموسى, نوف (May 23, 2012). "" المصلحة ".. سطوة تجار المخدرات". Al-Bayan. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  9. ^ أسعد, شادي (2 July 2015). "ننفرد بتفاصيل نهاية مسلسل "ذهاب وعودة"". Al Bawaba News. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  10. ^ "شباك التذاكر: فيلم - هروب اضطراري - 2017". elcinema.com. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  11. ^ جمال, مروى (January 8, 2021). "شاهد أول صورة لـ أحمد السقا من دوره فى "نسل الأغراب"". Youm7. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  12. ^ "بعد موت معظم أبطاله.. مسلسل "نسل الأغراب" يطيح بمخرجه محمد سامي". CNN Arabic. May 15, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  13. ^ "شباك التذاكر: فيلم - 200 جنيه - 2021". elcinema.com. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  14. ^ طه, محمد; جودة, ريهام (October 19, 2021). "أحمد السقا: تكريمي في مهرجان الجونة خلى أمبير العداد يرجع من الزيرو". Al-Masry Al-Youm. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  15. ^ جودة, ريهام; خالد, سعيد; نور, هالة (October 15, 2021). "أحمد السقا: تكريمي يحمّلني مسؤولية كبيرة.. وحب الناس ترمومتر النجاح". Al-Masry Al-Youm. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  16. ^ Essam, Angy (October 15, 2021). "Ahmed Elsakka, Recipient of 2021 GFF's Career Achievement Award". Egypt Today. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  17. ^ "أبرزها امتلاك حصان .. حلم أحمد السقا يتحول لحقيقة". alkonouz. April 4, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  18. ^ شوشة, نجلاء (October 19, 2020). "صورة.. أحمد السقا على الحصان". mobtada. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  19. ^ رشوان, نور (January 1, 2020). "بالفيديو.. أحمد السقا يغني موال الصبر". Al-Shorouk. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  20. ^ سليم, محمد (2020). "أحمد السقا يغني لعمرو سعد "بحبك يا صاحبي"". akhbarak.net. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  21. ^ نبيل, بهاء (June 21, 2021). "احمد السقا مؤلف أغنية للمطرب محمد نور ترجع قصتها إلى 17 عامًا". Youm7. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  22. ^ "أحمد السقا يحترف تأليف الأغاني الرومانسية رسميا .. شاهد أول أغنية بالفيديو". Sayidaty. July 2, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  23. ^ الرفاعى, محمود (June 5, 2021). "محمد نور يقدم أغنية من كلمات أحمد السقا مجددا في ألبومه الجديد". El Watan News. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  24. ^ تمساح, محمد (November 6, 2021). "محمد نور يكشف كلمات أغنيته الجديدة بالتعاون مع أحمد السقا". elmogaz. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  25. ^ خالد السيوفي, هشام (November 8, 2021). "قبل طرحها.. ننشر كلمات أغنية أحمد السقا الجديدة مع محمد نور". Akhbar el-Yom. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  26. ^ صالح, أحمد (March 1, 2018). "6 إصابات تعرض لها أحمد السقا في أفلامه أبرزها اشتعال النيران في جسده". Nogoum FM. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
  27. ^ a b "من هو أحمد السقا - Ahmed El Sakka؟". Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  28. ^ زكريا, محمد (September 15, 2018). "قبل "يوم الدين".. آخر 10 أفلام مثلت مصر فى الأوسكار والنتيجة واحدة". Youm7. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  29. ^ أحمد, نور (December 22, 2014). "حصول أحمد السقا علي جائزة أفضل ممثل في مهرجان الدير جيست وإهدائه الجائزه للراحل خالد صالح". klma.org. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  30. ^ "أحمد السقا يفوز بجائزة " أفضل ممثل " بالديرجيست لعام 2016". Akhbar el-Yom. November 15, 2016. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  31. ^ عبد الناصر, جمال (October 24, 2017). "كل هؤلاء النجوم يتنافسون على جائزة أفضل ممثل فى القومى للسينما". Youm7. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  32. ^ أيمن, خالد (December 21, 2019). "«دير جيست» تُكرم نجوم الفن عن أعمالهم في 2019". alroeya. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  33. ^ الرفاعى, محمود (December 8, 2019). "في "نجم العرب".. اختيار السقا وسامي أفضل ممثل ومخرج عن "ولد الغلابة"". El Watan News. Retrieved January 30, 2022.

External links edit