Egyptian actress Menna Shalaby is among the nominees for the Emmy’s International, the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences revealed yesterday.

The Academy noted that this year the nominees come from a record-breaking number of countries, including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, India, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“Actress Menna Shalaby garnered the first ever Emmy® nomination from Egypt for her performance in the crime mini-series Every Week Has a Friday,” says the release.

The 2020 crime drama TV series Every Week Has a Friday stars Shalaby in the role of Layla, “a girl with mysterious past forced to live with Emad, a mentally challenged man in his house while a series of violent crimes happens every Friday,” the IMDb brief reveals.

The nominations for Emmy’s International come shortly after the announcement of the winners of the Emmy Awards, which honour programs broadcast in the United States. The International Emmy is a US Award presented by The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to recognise excellence in television and honours programming produced outside of the United States.

Winners of the Emmy International will be announced at an in-person ceremony in New York City on 22 November 2021.

Shalaby began her career in 2001 with the television series 'Morning and Evening Talk,' based on a story by Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz. Her silver screen debut was also in 2001 when she got a role in the late Radwan Al-Kashef’s 'The Magician.'

Ever since, Shalaby has worked with many renowned Egyptian directors and alongside many other stars. Her filmography includes I Love Cinema (2004 dir. Osama Fawzi), The Best of Times (2004, dir. Hala Khalil), Downtown Girls (2005, dir. Mohamed Khan), About Love and Passion (2006, dir. Kamla Abouzekry), Chaos (2007, dir. Youssef Chahine), and Microphone (2010, dir. Ahmad Abdalla).

She collaborated with Youssry Nasrallah on 'After the Battle' (2012), which brought Egyptian cinema back to Cannes after a 15-year absence, and 'Brooks, Meadows and Lovely Faces' (2016), which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival before it was released in France and Switzerland.

Among Shalaby's most significant appearances was in the film 'Nawara' directed by Hala Khalil, which brought her a record of 10 best actress awards.

Shalaby described her role in Nawara as the role of her lifetime and one of the most important artistic endeavours she had taken in her career.

Shalaby's works also include 'The Originals' (2017, dir. Marawan Hamed) and 'Diamond Dust' (2018).

For her score of achievements, Shalaby was honoured with the Faten Hamama Excellence Award at the last 41st Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), which took place in November 2019.

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