Celebrities you did not know were Lebanese

Picture of Miss universe: Georgina Rizk

Amy Yasbeck

Born on the 12th of September 1962 in Ohio to John Anthony Yasbeck, a Lebanese Maronite, and Dorothy Louise Mary, an Irish homemaker. Amy has acted in several movies and television series, most notably:

• Pretty Woman
• The Mask
• Magnum P.I
• The Cosby Show
• That’s So Raven
• Bones
• Modern Family
• Pretty Little Liars

Edurne Ganem

Edy Ganem, a Mexican-Lebanese Actress, born on the 20th of September 1983 in California. She has played in:

• The Way to Happiness
• Black Limousine
• After the Wedding
• Entourage
• The Cleveland Show
• Devious Maids

Danny Thomas

Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz, (Jan 6, 1912- Feb 6, 1991) in Michigan, to Lebanese Maronite Immigrants from Deir El Ahmar, Lebanon. Danny was a Comedian, Singer, Actor and Producer whose career spanned five decades. He was also the founder of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Nominated for 1 Golden Globe, Another 5 wins & 6 nominations.

Actor in:

• The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (TV Show)
• Empty Nest (TV Show)
• One Big Family (TV Show)
• I’m a Big Girl Now (TV Show)
• Kojak (TV Show)
• The Practice (TV Show)
• McCloud (TV Show)
• Here’s Lucy (TV Show)
• Make Room for Granddaddy (TV Show)
• That Girl (TV Show)
• Get Smart (TV Show)
• Don’t Worry, We’Ll Think Of A Title (Movie)
• The Lucy Show (TV Show)
• Make Room for Daddy (TV Show)
• The Joey Bishop Show (TV Show)
• Journey Back To Oz (Movie)
• Looking For Love (Movie)
• The Danny Thomas Show (TV Show)
• The Jack Benny Program (TV Show)
• The Jazz Singer (Movie)
• I’ll See You In My Dreams (Movie)
• Call Me Mister (Movie)
• Big City (Movie)
• The Unfinished Dance (Movie)
• We Love Lucy (TV Show)

Kathy Najimy

Born on the 6th of Feb. 1957, in California, to Lebanese Maronite parents. Kathy Ann Najimy has been an actress since 1985 until today. Some of her most famous Movies include:

• Sister Act
• Hocus Pocus
• Bride of Chucky
• The Wedding Planner
• Descendants

She has also played in multiple series:

• In Search of Dr. Seuss
• Veronica’s Closet
• King of the Hill
• Hercules
• Oswald
• Stuart Little: The Animated Series
• That’s So Raven
• Tinker Bell
• Desperate Housewives
• Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure

Jamie Farr

Jameel Joseph Farah, born in Ohio on the 1st of July 1934 to a Lebanese Antiochian orthodox family. He has been an Actor and a Comedian since 1955. He has appeared in many films such as:

• M.A.S.H
• That 70's Show
• Family Guy
• The Flying Nun
• Scrooged
• The Mod Squad

George Nader

George Nader, born to a Lebanese father and an American mother in California in October 19, 1921, he began his career in the 50's. Some of his most notable works include:

• Take Care of My Litter Girl
• The Loretta Young Show
• Joe Butterfly
• The Andy Griffith Show
• The Secret Mark of D’Artagnan
• The House of 1000 Dolls
• Beyond Atlantis

Frank Lackteen

Frank was born in Kab-Elias in Zahlé, Lebanon on the 29ht of August 1897. He appeared in around 200 films between 1916-1965, some of which are:

• The Avenging Arrow
• The Timber Queen
• Idaho
• The Black Book
• Isle of Fury
• Arabian Nights
• The Ten Commandments
• The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin

Emile Kuri

Emile was born on the 11th of June, 1907 in Mexico to Lebanese parents.

He was a Set Decorator who won 2 Academy Awards for the films:

• The Heiress
• 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea

Nominated for 6 more in the category of Best Art Direction, some of which include:

• Mary Poppins
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Tom Shadyac

Thomas Peter Shadyac was born on December 11, 1958, in Virginia, to Lebanese-Irish parents. He was a Screenwriter, Director, Producer and Author; some of his most notable works include:

• Ace Ventura-Pet Detective
• The Nutty Professor
• Dragonfly
• Bruce Almighty
• I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

Rose Abdoo

Rose Marie Abdoo was born on November 28, 1962. She is an Actress and a Comedian who developed her own one-woman shows. Some of her works include:

• My Best Friend’s Wedding
• The 40 Year Old Virgin
• Legally Blondes
• Pride & Joy
• Gilmore Girls
• That’s So Raven
• CSI-NY
• Malcolm in the Middle
• Pretty Little Liars
• The Mentalist
• Grey’s Anatomy

Marlo Thomas

Daughter of a Lebanese Maronite, Danny Thomas, Margaret Julia Thomas was born on the 21st of November 1937. She was an Actress, Producer, Author and Social Activist. In 2014, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Obama at a White House ceremony. She has appeared in several films and series; including:

• Ocean’s 8
• Playing Mona Lisa
• That Girl
• The Donna Reed Show
• Thriller
• Roseanne
• Friends
• Frasier
• Ugly Betty

Dan Jbara

Dan is born in Detroit, to Lebanese parents. He is a TV/Film Producer whose career focused on reality television the U.S. Some of his works include:

• Producer for The Mickey Mouse Club (Disney Channel)
• Executive Producer for Is It Possible (Discovery Channel)
• Executive Producer for In Search for the Partridge Family
• Producer for Hard Copy (Paramount Television)

Gregory Jbara

Gregory Jbara, born September 28, 1961, in Michigan. He is an American film, television and stage actor, and singer. He is of Lebanese and Irish descent. Some of his movie roles include:

• Blue Bloods (Garrett Moore)
• Nurse Jackie (Game On)
• Remember Me (Les Hirsch)
• The Unit (Paradise Lost-Colonel Bright)
• Epic Movie (Mel Gibson Look-Alike)
• Conviction (True Love,Judge Herman Zimet)
• World Trade Center
• Grounded for Life (The Letter(s), Racketman, Me and Mrs. O)
• Century City (Sweet Child of Mine)
• The Tracy Morgan Show
• Without A Trace (Sons and Daughters)
• Touched by an Angel (At the End of the Aisle)
• The West Wing (Angel Maintenance)
• Providence (Things That Go Bump in the Night)
• Crossing Jordan (Bombs Away)
• The First $20 Million
• Ally McBeal (Reach Out and Touch)
• That’s Life (Nomads, The Tutor, The Screw-Up)
• Frasier (Shutout in Seattle)
• The Out-Of-Towners
• William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• In & Out
• One Fine Day
• Married To It
• “Crocodile” Dundee II
• The House On Carroll Street
• Newhart (Fun with Dick and Joanna)
• Sinners Need Company

Voice Credit:

• Family Guy (Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater; 1999)

David Yazbek

Born in 1961 in NYC, to a Lebanese father and an Italian-Jewish mother, David is a Musician, a Composer and a Lyricist. He composed the music and lyrics for the Broadway Musicals:

• The Full Monty
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
• The Band’s Visit

Casey Kasem

Kemal Amin Kasem (April 7, 1932-June 15, 2014), born in Michigan, to Lebanese Immigrant parents. He was an artist and an Actor, the voice of shaggy in Scooby-Doo, Some of his works included:

• Scooby-Doo
• The Return of the King
• Ghostbusters
• The Transformers
• Looney Tunes: Back in Action
• The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo
• Sesame Street
• Johnny Bravo

Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek Jiménez born in Mexico. Her father is Mexican of Catholic Lebanese descent, his family is from the city of Baabdat, Lebanon, a city Salma and her father visited in 2015 to promote her movie Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. In an interview in 2015 while visiting Madrid, Hayek described herself as “50% Lebanese and 50% Spanish.”

Movies where Salma starred:

• Frida
• Desperado
• After the sunset
• The Hitman’s bodyguard
• From dusk til Dawn
• The prophet
• Follow me home
• Living it up
• Four rooms
• 54
• Some kind of beautiful
• In times of the butterflies
• Grown ups 2

Keanu Reeves

Keanu Charles Reeves was born in Beirut on September 2, 1964, the son of Patricia (née Taylor). He is an actor, director, producer, and musician. He gained fame for his starring role performances in several blockbuster films, including:

• From the Bill and Ted franchise
• Point Break
• Speed
• The John Wick franchise
• The Devil’s Advocate
• Constantine
• The Matrix
• Dangerous Liaisons
• My Own Private Idaho
• Little Buddha
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Shakira

The Lebanese spirit. Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, born 2 February 1977), is a Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer, businesswoman, philanthropist and ambassador for UNICEF. Her paternal grandparents emigrated from Tannourine, Lebanon to NYC.

Vince Vaughn

The Wedding Crashers star, Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an actor, producer, screenwriter, and comedian. He has Lebanese roots and they come from his paternal grandmother. Vaughn’s grandmother comes from the Saba family of Innabet. Vincent starred in many movies such as:

• Wedding crashers
• Swingers
• Old school
• The lost world
• Into the wild
• The break up
• The watch
• Mr & Mrs Smith
• Unfinished business
• Zoolander
• Fighting with my family
• Daddy’s home

Zoe Saldana

How beautiful is she? — Saldana was born in June 19, 1978), New Jersey. Saldana has Lebanese and Haitian roots, as she admitted to MBC that she is part Lebanese and enjoys Lebanese cooking. She is an actress and dancer. Saldana made her screen debut in an episode of Law & Order (1999). Some of the movies where she starred include:

• The losers
• Avatar
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Star Trek into the darkness
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The curse of the Black Pearl

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

We all know he is Lebanese, but It’s impossible to not mention him in this list, due to his big achievements and thanks to him people can understand more the cultural diversity within the Lebanese society, that was out-shadowed by Arabism & its advocates.

Nassim Nicholas is an essayist, scholar, statistician, and former trader and risk analyst, whose work concerns problems of randomness, probability, and uncertainty. His 2007 book The Black Swan has been described by The Sunday Times as one of the twelve most influential books since World War II.

In 2009, he was included on the Forbes magazine list of “Most Influential Management Gurus”. In 2011, he was included on the Bloomberg 50 most influential people in global finance, and in 2013, 2014, 2015 he was included among most influential 100 thought leaders in the world by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader, born February 27, 1934, is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the United States. Nader also ran for president of the United States.

Shannon Elizabeth

The American pie star, born September 7, 1973, Texas. She is an American actress and former fashion model, and a proud Lebanese, as she stated: “I’m proud of the Lebanese side of my life” “I remember going to my grandparents’ house quite a bit and it was always about cooking and Lebanese food”. Shannon starred in Chris Brown’s song and in movies such as:

• American Pie
• Scary movie
• Night of the demons

Rima Fakih

Rima Fakih, born September 22, 1985, is a Lebanese-American actress, model, professional wrestler and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 2010. She represented the state of Michigan in the national pageant. Rima was born in Lebanon, and left to the US at the age of 8.

Jenna Dewan

The dime that Channing Tatum lost, after about 9 years of marriage. Dewan was born in Hartford, born December 3, 1980, She is an American actress and dancer. The daughter of Nancy Smith and Darrell Dewan, of Lebanese and Polish descent, (Dewan being a surname of middle-eastern origin).

Tony Shalhoub

Anthony Marcus Shalhoub, born October 9, 1953, is an American actor. His father, Joe, is from Lebanon and immigrated to the United States as an orphan at the age of 8. Anthony won a Golden Globe Award for best actor — Television Series Musical or Comedy, 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series and 3 Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

He has also had a successful film career other than the series “Monk” such as

• Barton Fink
• Big Night
• Men in Black
• The Siege
• Galaxy Quest
• Spy Kids
• The Man Who Wasn’t There
• Cars
• 1408
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Catherine and Elizabeth keener

Catherine Ann Keener (born March 23, 1959) is an American actress born in in Miami, Florida. She is of Irish descent on her father’s side and of Lebanese descent on her mother’s.

She has been twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles as Maxine Lund in Being John Malkovich and Harper Lee in Capote.

Amal Clooney

Amal Alamuddin Clooney, born 3 February 1978, in Chouf, is a Druze Lebanese-British specializing in international law and human rights. Her clients include Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in his fight against extradition. She has also represented the former PM of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, and Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy. She is married to the American actor George Clooney.

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera

William Denby “Bill” Hanna, (July 14, 1910 — March 22, 2001) was an animator, director, producer, voice actor, cartoon artist, and musician, of Lebanese origins, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century.

Awarded 7 Oscars, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna (creators of Tom and Jerry), are of Lebanese origins. Some sources claim Barbera is of Italian origins, others claim of Lebanese origins.

Noah Shebib

Noah Shebib, better known as “40", is Drake’s producer and co-founder of OVO (alongside Drake and Oliver El-Khatib). He was born in Canada but is of Lebanese descent. Noah earned his nickname 40 — short for ’40 Days & 40 Nights’ — due to the absurd period of time he’d stay up to build and perfect projects.

Ever since So Far Gone, Shebib has been producing almost all of Drizzy’s music and has also taken on producing for other artists such as Lil Wayne, Alicia Keys, and Majid Jordan among several others.

Noah said in an interview when asked about his nickname “Goldstein”: “My name, 40, this nickname I got, it was cool to say. It was a tough one, and my name is awesome ironically enough, though I’m Lebanese, not Israeli. It was a cool name to say. Quick, easy, cool thing to say. And really as far as Drake shouting me out all the time, it was just me and him.” https://www.gq.com/story/noah-shebib-40-drake-take-care-producer

Oliver El-Khatib

Oliver El-Khatib, on the other hand, is Drake’s co-manager and co-founder of OVO (alongside Drake and 40). Oliver was also born in Canada but is of Lebanese descent. El-Khatib is credited to be the genius behind Drake’s global branding existence.

Oliver creates the balance in OVO. He is the one that pilots the team, makes sure that everything is in order and that it functions as it should. Moreover, Oliver is also in charge of the OVO clothing line and monitors its growth. Earlier on, before handling the clothing line, he used to be known for his visibility on OVO’s blog spot.

Years into his career, El-Khatib has discovered many note-worthy talents such as TheWeeknd and PartyNextDoor.

Tony Sal

Wassim “Sal” Slaiby or Saliby born in Lebanon in 1979 is a Maronite Lebanese-Canadian entrepreneur and music manager. Operating under the name SAL&CO/Maverick, the 36-year-old, who emigrated from Lebanon to Canada, maintains his Los Angeles and Toronto-based staff and brings with him a roster that includes The Weeknd (co-managed by Amir “Cash” Esmailian), Belly, French Montana, NAV and Massari, as well as producer-songwriters DaHeala, Dannyboy, Ben Billions and Breyan Isaac.

He got married to the Lebanese miss USA, Rima Fakih on 15 May 2016 in the Maronite Patriarchal Church in Bkerke, Lebanon, in a marriage ceremony presided by Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi in the presence of many celebrities, let along The Weeknd singing at their wedding.

René Angélil

Angélil was a music producer, talent manager, and singer. He was the manager and husband of Céline Dion. His mother, Alice Sara, was Canadian of Lebanese descent.

William Peter Blatty

Blatty was the son of Lebanese immigrants, an American writer and filmmaker who is best known for his novel “The Exorcist”. The film adaptation won the following awards:

Best Picture (Golden Globes), Best Screenplay (Golden Globes), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Academy Awards)

Margit Saad

Margit is the daughter of a Lebanese linguist father

She made her screen debut in Eva erbt das Paradies. In 1960 she starred in the British drama film “The Criminal” and followed it up with appearances in other British films and television programmes such as The Rebel (US Call Me Genius, 1961),

Playback (1962),

the Edgar Wallace Mysteries series of second features,

The Saint in The Saint Sees It Through (1964)

The Magnificent Two (1967)

Carlos Slim Helú

Born January 28, 1940, a Mexican business magnate, of Maronite Lebanese descent, an engineer, investor and philanthropist.

From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by the Forbes business magazine. As of August 2018, he is the 7th-richest person in the world according to Forbes’ listing of The World’s Billionaires with a net worth estimated at $67.4 billion. He is the richest man in Mexico.

Did you know that Mario Kassar, the producer of Rambo, The Terminator, and basic instinct is Lebanese? Rony Saikaly the NBA Player, General John AbiZaid Head of the US Army’s Central command, Charles Elachi director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Paul Anka, Mika, Joe Hachem and Joseph Mouawad the International Poker players, Michael Debakey the first heart surgeon, Reem Acra, Cyril Tabet, Casey Kasem, Nicholas Skaf, Elie Saab, Zuhair Murad, Carlos Ghosn, Brazil’s former president Michel Temer, Emilio Chuayffet, Kevin O’Leary the Star of America’s Shark Tank, and let’s not forget Gibran Khalil Gibran are also all Lebanese descendants