Bella Hadid set for acting debut with role in Ramy season three

Already a supermodel and activist, Bella Hadid will soon be able to add actor to her CV, too. 

The Palestinian-Dutch model will join the cast of Hulu’s comedy hit Ramy for its third season, due to start later this year.

Hadid will be a recurring guest star in the Emmy-nominated show, which has also won a Golden Globe for actor and writer Ramy Youssef. 

The show is centred on the struggles of Muslims trying to navigate religion and the lifestyle of the millennial generation, and is loosely based on the life of Egyptian-American actor Ramy Youssef.

In the third season, Ramy tussles with a number of conflicts in his life, from his spiritual journey to working in his uncle’s diamond business. 

The exact release date of the third season is yet to be announced, but the series will include well-known actors, including Mohammed Amer, Laith Nakli, May Calamawy and Egyptian star Amr Waked. Other notable guest stars who have featured in the series include Mahershala Ali, who won best supporting actor Oscars for Moonlight (2016) and Green Book (2018). 

Palestinian heritage 

Although details of Hadid’s character are yet to be revealed, many believe that she is a good fit for the role, given her Palestinian heritage.

Hadid shared her excitement on Instagram, where she regularly shares snippets of her and her father, Palestinian real-estate mogul Mohamed Hadid, making traditional Palestinian dishes and highlighting the plight of Palestinians through informative graphics and posts. 

The supermodel also has a long history of sharing her unapologetic pride in her Palestinian origins, and condemning Israeli occupation. In 2017, she joined a pro-Palestine protest outside the American embassy in London, to oppose then-President Donald Trump’s recognition of the whole city of Jerusalem as Israel’s exclusive capital. Taking to Instagram at the time, she called the move a major step back for peace.

In 2020, the supermodel called out Instagram for removing a post in which she shared a photo of her father’s passport showing his birthplace as Palestine. 

Celebrated online

Following the announcement, thousands of people flooded social media with praise and excitement over Hadid’s acting debut. Others stated that Hadid would make a good fit for the show, considering her heritage. Online activists have long criticised producers for not casting people from appropriate communities to portray Arab characters.

“I was so confused for a minute, then I remembered she’s Arab,” one twitter user wrote. 

Another wrote, “People really forget that she is Palestinian Jordanian”. 

Tens of thousands of fans and fellow celebrities congratulated the model on Instagram, expressing optimism about her acting career.