Personal details
Born:
- Birthday: 1962-10-21
- Born Place: Damascus, Syria
Also Known As:
Jihad Abdo, جهاد عبدو, جاي عبدو
Jay Abdo
Jay Abdo (born Jihad Abdo on October 21, 1962, in Damascus) is a celebrated Syrian-American actor whose life story is a remarkable journey from Middle Eastern stardom to a humble restart in Hollywood. Raised in a culturally rich environment by a literature professor father and a mother of European descent, Abdo was a talented violinist as a child before moving to Romania to study civil engineering. It was on the Romanian stage that he discovered his passion for acting, eventually returning to Syria to graduate from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in 1991. Over the next two decades, he became one of the most famous faces in the Arab world, appearing in over 40 films and 1,000 television episodes, most notably as Riyad in the massive hit series Bab al-Hara, which reached an audience of over 50 million viewers. His life took a dramatic turn during the 2011 Syrian uprising when he spoke out against the Assad regime in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, leading to threats and his eventual flight to the United States. Arriving in Los Angeles as a refugee, Abdo famously changed his first name to Jay to avoid the negative connotations associated with "Jihad" in the West. Despite his previous fame, he spent his first years in America working as a pizza delivery driver for Domino's and an Uber driver while attending hundreds of failed auditions. His breakthrough came when director Werner Herzog cast him as Fattuh in Queen of the Desert (2015) opposite Nicole Kidman. Since then, he has appeared alongside Tom Hanks in A Hologram for the King, starred in the Amazon series Patriot, and featured in the 2026 drama I Was a Stranger. Married to human rights activist and artist Fadia Afashe since 2006, Abdo remains a vocal advocate for refugees and human rights, using his platform to bridge the gap between Middle Eastern and Western cinema.
