We’re continuing my conversation with award-winning ad director and filmmaker Omar Hilal. This week, he tells me about three key projects: the hilarious Aqua Mangos ad, the ground-breaking Royal Jordanian Ad and a sneak-peek into his upcoming film.

You can listen to my full episode with Omar Hilal where he tells me about his life’s pivots, starting out as a photojournalist to award-winning ad director to filmmaker: https://listen.amaeya.fm/widn-omar-hilal

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I’m delighted to be joined by award-winning ad director & filmmaker Omar Hilal as this month’s guest. Omar is one of those people who discovered that he wanted to become a director very early in life. He started out as a photo-journalist and went on to become an accomplished ad director, with stand-out ads such as the Aqua Mangos ad for Nestle and the ground-breaking Royal Jordanian Ad in his portfolio. The ads he’s worked on have won more than 50 awards, including 5 Grand Prix.

In 2023, he switched gears to release his directorial debut, Voy! Voy! Voy!, which went on to win 16 awards globally and was Egypt’s official selection to the Oscars.

Listen in as he tells me about his life’s twists and turns from ad-man to film director and everything in between.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Holding, a financial institution with a universal bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank in the Middle East and North Africa.

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This week, I’m joined by Rawya Mansour, Chairwoman of RAMSCO Egypt and Oasis Technologies Monaco, for a special episode as part of our collaboration with The Narrative Summit 2025.

Rawya is a pioneer of sustainable development and regenerative agriculture, including shifting away from chemical polymer fertilisers towards green charcoal. We’ll get into the pivotal moments that led her on this journey as well as her involvement with The Narrative Summit.

The theme for the 2025 edition of The Narrative Summit is Egypt reset – to redefine Egypt’s global standing by showcasing its economic resilience, investment potential and cultural dynamism. The summit will focus on three key pillars—Financial accessibility, Tourism and hospitality, and the sports ecosystem. The Narrative summit will take place from April 7 to 9 against the breathtaking backdrop of Somabay on the Red Sea coast.

You can follow me on Instagram for coverage from the event, and I’ll also be moderating a panel on the 8th of April.

I’ll be back with a new guest next week, see you then!

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I’m excited to share a special episode from the podcast, Gems of Arabia about Arab Representation in Media. The episode, hosted by WIDN alum Hatem Al Akeel, was recorded a few weeks ago at the CNN Academy in Abu Dhabi in front of a live audience of the Academy’s latest cohort of budding journalists.

We were joined by another WIDN alum Becky Anderson, Managed Editor of CNN Abu Dhabi and Arab News’ Editor-in-Chief Faisal Abbas.

This was a great conversation about breaking stereotypes, how Arab voices are represented, and the importance of re-shaping and owning our narrative on the world stage. I hope you find the conversation as insightful as I did.

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We’re continuing my conversation with interior architect Nouf Al Moneef, Director of the Noor Riyadh festival. On today’s episode, Nouf tells me about the evolution of Noor Riyadh, why they chose light as a theme in addition to art, as well as about her own design aesthetic.

You can find the first part of my conversation with Nouf in your podcast app as well as on YouTube.

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Nouf Al Moneef is an interior architect and the Director of the Noor Riyadh festival, which falls under the larger umbrella of the Riyadh Art Project. Noor Riyadh has now welcomed more than 3 million visitors and hosted artworks by hundreds of Saudi, regional and international artists.

Nouf also continues to help grow the conversation about art and design on social media, although she is not a fan of the word influencer. Nouf has garnered a huge following and has had an obvious impact on how the KSA is perceived and she is a wonderful ambassador for culture, the arts and her country as a whole.

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We’re continuing my conversation with actor Khalid Abdalla this week, going behind the curtain into his solo play, Nowhere. I saw the play when I was in the UK last October and was personally moved by his performance.

On this episode, Khalid tells me about the journey that led to him writing Nowhere, and the impact of his work.

On a bonus episode for members out next week, we’ll dig into his process as an actor, and how he prepared for his role as Dodi Fayed on The Crown. If you haven’t tuned in, you can also catch the first part of my conversation with Khalid in your podcast app.

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Khalid Abdalla first became known to many of us with his incredible role in The Kite Runner. More recently, he was on our screens as Dodi Fayed on The Crown. But beyond all his subtle and challenging roles, I was personally moved by his stage performance in his solo play, Nowhere, which I saw last October.

We covered so many topics during our conversation that we’re bringing this to you as a two-part episode. On our main episode today, Khalid tells me about his journey, including his performances in The Kite Runner, The Square, The Crown and Nowhere, as well as how he views them through the lens of his own identity and how this has evolved now that he’s a father of two.

Next week, we’ll go behind the curtain into Nowhere itself, how the play came to be and the impact of his performance. And finally as a bonus episode for our members, we’ll dig into his process as an actor, and how he prepared for his role as Dodi Fayed.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Holding, a financial institution with a universal bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank in the Middle East and North Africa.

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I’m excited to welcome Farida Osman as the first athlete on the show! She’s a 3-time Olympian, 3-times world bronze medalist and holds senior national records for butterfly, freestyle and backstroke events.

Farida is such a natural, positive person who is authentic and passionate about her sport. She’s a wonderful ambassador for swimming and an incredible role model for young sportspeople who can look to her and see that anything is possible.

This episode is brought to you by EFG Holding, a leading financial institution with a universal bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank in the Middle East and North Africa.

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I’m super excited to kick-off 2025 with one of our new segments called WIDN Encore, where I’ll be checking in with some of your favourite What I Did Next alumni.

My first guest is adventurer, entrepreneur, and podcaster Omar Samra. I first spoke to Omar in 2021 about his company, Wild Guanabana, and his epic maritime challenge with Omar Nour which they parlayed into an award-winning documentary, Beyond the Raging Sea. We’re picking up right where we left off and Omar tells me what he’s been upto since.

A reminder that these Encore episodes will be members-only going forward, so if you’d like to hear from your favourite alumni, including Ahmed Alfi, Nada Debs, Ali Ali and Amy Mowafi, subscribe now so you can get this and all of our bonus episodes throughout the year!

Chapters:

00:00 Coming up

00:41 Introduction

02:00 Moving away from city life

03:58 What Omar is working on

08:49 Launching two podcasts

11:33 Darkness retreat

15:19 The body experience of the darkness retreat

27:26 A more reflective Omar

30:09 Influential people in his life

33:22 Anthropology and Astronomy

35:20 Lightning Round

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