Laila Alawi…the “movie cat” lives on in people’s memories

The birthday of the Egyptian artist, Laila Elwi, was yesterday, Sunday, January 4. The Egyptian artist, Laila Elwi, cannot be ignored when talking about Egyptian cinema. The artist, who was born on January 4, 1962, entered the artistic scene from a young age, when she participated with her sister, “Lamia,” when she was seven years old, in children’s programs that were presented by Egyptian television, before she appeared for the first time at the age of fifteen in the play “8 Women,” with the late director Jalal El-Sharqawi.

The support of Laila Elwi’s family had a great impact on her early entry into the artistic arena, as she has an Egyptian father and a Greek mother, and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She also had a single marriage experience with businessman Mansour El-Gammal, which lasted eight years, between the years: 2007 and 2015, and she has one “adopted” son, called “Khaled.”

Laila Alawi has been associated with cinema, although her career was not devoid of many dramatic and theatrical works, but her cinematic presence was the difference in her stardom, as it made critics and audiences call her “cinema cat.” For her beautiful features, softness, and delicacy.

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“Cinema Cat” appeared cinematically for the first time in 1974 in the movie “Me, My Daughter, and Love,” and until her movie “Al-Mustareha” in 2025, she played roles that are still stuck in people’s memories, such as: “Husband on Call” in 1985, with: Adel Imam, Fouad Al-Muhandis, and Hala Sidqi. And “The Execution of the Dead” in the same year, with: Farid Shawqi, Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, Yahya Al-Fakharani, and Bossi. And “A Virgin and Three Men” in 1986, with: Farid Shawqi, Safiya Al-Omari, and Izzat Al-Alayli. And “Oh dear, we are all thieves” in 1989, with: Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, Salah Kabil, and Saeed Saleh. And “The Minister’s Fist” in 1991, with: Youssef Mansour and Hamdi Al-Wazir. And “A Little Love, a Lot of Violence” in 1995, with: Hisham Selim and Younis Shalabi. In the same year, “Oh My World, My Love,” with: Elham Shaheen and Hala Sidqi. And “Halq Hosh” in 1997, with: Alaa Wali Al-Din and Mohamed Henedy. And “Al-Masir”, with: the late director Youssef Chahine, Nour El-Sherif, Mahmoud Hamida, and Khaled El-Nabawy. And “Laugh, the picture turns out beautiful” with: Ahmed Zaki, Sanaa Jamil, Karim Abdel Aziz, and Mona Zaki. And “Baby Doll Night” in 2006, with: Nour El Sharif, Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, and Mahmoud Hamida. And “Water, Greenery, and a Beautiful Face” in 2016, with: Menna Shalabi and Bassem Samra.

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Laila Alawi subsequently stopped attending cinema. After the equation and method of ideas presented changed, but after five years they came back strongly. To form a social comedy duo with the artist Bayoumi Fouad, starting with the films “Mama is Pregnant” in 2021, “Sugar Daddy” in 2023, “Toxic Passport” in 2024, and “Al-Mustareeha” in 2025, and she is awaiting her fifth film, which will be shown this year under the title “Son of Who Among Them,” which is the duo that brought her back to the forefront of the cinematic scene.

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