November 20

Too preppy for words:

Omar Sharif Jr

Actor Omar Sharif Jr is one of the most high profile gay Muslims in the world. He is the grandson and namesake of Omar Sharif (1932-2015), the Egyptian actor who was the star of the film “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962). Omar Jr, born in Montreal in 1983, will be 34 years old in a week, on November 28. Complicating matters is the fact that he is not only gay and Muslim, he is also half Jewish; his father is Muslim, his mother Jewish, and his maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors.

 

As an actor, model and gay activist, Omar Jr found it necessary to move from Cairo to Los Angeles in 2011, because of the political changes taking place in Egypt. A fluent speaker of six languages, he was brought up in Paris, Montreal and Cairo. His actor grandfather knew that Omar Jr. was gay and had no problem with it, but when he came out to the Arab world, there were threats of violence against him.

As a model he was the face of Coca-Cola in the Middle East and appeared in a major print campaign for Calvin Klein in Egypt. As an actor he has appeared in television series in Canada and Egypt and has made films in Egypt and Ireland. He appears as a police officer in the recent film “11th Hour”, which co-stars Salma Hayek. A selection for this year’s TriBeCa film festival, “11th Hour” is set in a bar in Manhattan on the evening of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  As well, Omar Jr is set to star in the revival of “Dante’s Cove”, a gay supernatural television soap opera (everything is in place except for complete funding).

Omar Jr was honored as one of the “Out 100” in 2012, the Advocate's "40 Under 40" in 2014 and 2015, and won Attitude Magazine's “Inspiration Award” last year.

For my younger readers who may not know
actor Omar Sharif, Omar Jr's grandpa:

My nips control me. Yeah!