---
name: "Waleed Zuaiter"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/waleed-zuaiter"
fi1m_id: "waleed-zuaiter"
imdb_id: "nm0958206"
tmdb_id: 94431
wikidata_id: "Q59361"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "19 January 1971"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 5
average_fi1m_score: 62
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 5
updated: "2026-10-07T14:57:35.685892+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Waleed Zuaiter

## Identity

Waleed Zuaiter

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/waleed-zuaiter
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** waleed-zuaiter
- **IMDb ID:** nm0958206
- **TMDB ID:** 94431
- **Wikidata ID:** Q59361
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waleed_Zuaiter, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q59361, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0958206/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/94431

Actor. Born 19 January 1971 in Sacramento, California, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 19 January 1971, Sacramento, California, USA
- **Active:** 2008–present
- **Also known as:** Waleed F. Zuaiter, 웨일드 주아터
- **Average Fi1m score:** 62, as actor, over 5 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 60 (1), 2010s 48 (2), 2020s 76 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 62 to 60 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 2 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 0 of 2 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 4, Action 1, Action & Adventure 1, Adventure 1, Crime 1, Mystery 1
- **Screen time:** 2 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $206m across 1 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waleed_Zuaiter, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q59361, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0958206/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/94431

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Girlfriend*](https://film.one/tv/the-girlfriend.md) (78)
- **Netflix:** [*The Spy*](https://film.one/tv/the-spy.md) (58)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Waleed Zuaiter

> Waleed Zuaiter spent years playing the colonel, the suspect and the terrorist's son, and gave each of them more thought than the scripts asked for. The leads, when they came, show what had been going to waste.

In *The Spy* (2019) he is Amin al-Hafez, a Syrian colonel in Damascus who takes to a charming new friend and never looks at him properly. It is a small part in a six-episode series and Zuaiter does not inflate it. He plays a man enjoying being liked, which is harder than playing a man being fooled, and it is one reason the Damascus half of the series held us when the Tel Aviv half did not. We wished the series had spent more of its evenings with him and with Alexander Siddig's security chief; those were the scenes in which the writing had something to do.

He came to the screen late, after years on stage in Washington and then New York, and the screen did what it tended to do with an Arab-American actor in the late 2000s. There was Mahmud Daash in *The Men Who Stare at Goats* (2009), a turn in *Homeland* (2011), the son of a terrorist leader in *London Has Fallen* (2016), and a long run of guest and recurring television parts in between. The roles were the men the hero has to get past. He is bilingual in English and Arabic and he was, by most accounts, better than the parts required, which is not the same as being noticed.

The turn was something he arranged himself. He produced *Omar* (2013), Hany Abu-Assad's thriller about life on the West Bank, and played Agent Rami in it. *Baghdad Central* (2020) gave him a lead, a former Iraqi police officer searching for his daughter after the invasion, the kind of part he had spent a decade standing next to. The same year he was Koba, a Georgian drug kingpin and arms dealer, in *Gangs of London*, which suggests the menace is still available when asked for. We have not reviewed those, so we will say only that the shape is plain. With Joana Zuaiter he then founded FlipNarrative to develop Middle Eastern and Arab-American stories; his line on it was that "it's not just about showing different faces on the screen. It's also about hearing their voices."

The recent work is mixed in the way supporting careers are. In *The Girlfriend* (2025) he is Howard Sanderson, a part in a series whose supporting characters we found thin, and he is not the reason to watch it. *High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam* (2026) casts him as Saddam Hussein; he grew up in Kuwait and was there when Iraq invaded in 1990, so he knows the man's shadow at first hand. Twenty years as the man in the hero's way, and now the leads have started to arrive. More than one of them he had to produce himself.

## Biography

Waleed Zuaiter is an American actor and producer of Palestinian descent. Born in Sacramento, California, he grew up in Kuwait before returning to the United States to study philosophy and theatre at George Washington University. He began his career in stage productions in Washington, D.C., Berkeley and New York City.

Zuaiter has appeared in films including *The Men Who Stare at Goats* (2009), *London Has Fallen* (2016) and *20th Century Women* (2016), and in television series such as *Homeland* (2011), *The Blacklist* (2013), *Altered Carbon* (2018) and *Gangs of London* (2020). He produced and co-starred in the Oscar-nominated film *Omar* (2013). In 2025 he played Howard Sanderson in the series *The Girlfriend*.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (5)

- *The Girlfriend* (2025), Fi1m 78, as Howard Sanderson — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-girlfriend.md)
- *Gangs of London* (2020), Fi1m 74, as Koba — [page](https://film.one/tv/gangs-of-london.md)
- *The Spy* (2019), Fi1m 58, as Amin al-Hafez — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-spy.md)
- *London Has Fallen* (2016), Fi1m 38, as Kamran Barkawi — [page](https://film.one/film/london-has-fallen.md)
- *House of Saddam* (2008), Fi1m 60, as Adnan Hamdani — [page](https://film.one/tv/house-of-saddam.md)

## Complete filmography (47)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam* (2026), series, as Saddam Hussein
- *The Girlfriend* (2025), series, as Howard Sanderson — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-girlfriend.md)
- *Running Dry* (2024), Actor
- *Exception* (2024), as Karim Hadawi
- *Amira* (2021), as Said
- *No Longer Suitable For Use* (2021), Actor
- *Oslo* (2021), as Hassan Asfour
- *Aya and Yusuf* (2020), series, as Grandpa
- *Gangs of London* (2020), series, as Koba — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/gangs-of-london.md)
- *Baghdad Central* (2020), series, as Muhsin al-Khafaji
- *The Spy* (2019), series, as Amin al-Hafez — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-spy.md)
- *William* (2019), as Dr. Reed
- *Here and Now* (2018), as Sami
- *Billionaire Boys Club* (2018), as The Persian / Izzy's Dad
- *The Angel* (2018), as Gamal Abdel Nasser
- *Altered Carbon* (2018), series, as Samir Abboud
- *20th Century Women* (2016), as Charlie
- *The Free World* (2016), as Khalil
- *Namour* (2016), as Nabil
- *Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero* (2016), as Malek
- *London Has Fallen* (2016), as Kamran Barkawi — Fi1m 38, [page](https://film.one/film/london-has-fallen.md)
- *Parisienne* (2016), as L'oncle Simon
- *Colony* (2016), series, as Vincent
- *Madam Secretary* (2014), series, as Prime Minister Khoosat
- *Legends* (2014), series, as Faris Nader
- *Masters of Sex* (2013), series, as Mohammad aka Shah of Iran — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/masters-of-sex.md)
- *The Blacklist* (2013), series, as The Scimitar — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-blacklist.md)
- *Omar* (2013), as Agent Rami · Producer
- *Elevator* (2013), as Mohammed
- *The United* (2012), Actor
- *Revolution* (2012), series, as Martin Shaw
- *Political Animals* (2012), series, as Serkan
- *Common Law* (2012), series, as Aram Parisian
- *Homeland* (2011), series, as Afsal Hamid — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/homeland.md)
- *Blue Bloods* (2010), series, as Adam Hassan
- *The Men Who Stare at Goats* (2009), as Mahmud Daash
- *NCIS: Los Angeles* (2009), series, as Thierry / Sheik
- *The Good Wife* (2009), series, as Danny Marwat — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-good-wife.md)
- *Veronika Decides to Die* (2009), as Lecturer
- *Lie to Me* (2009), series, as Deputy Ambassador Rafid
- *House of Saddam* (2008), series, as Adnan Hamdani — Fi1m 60, [page](https://film.one/tv/house-of-saddam.md)
- *The Visitor* (2008), as Omar
- *The Unit* (2006), series, as Man with Red Envelope
- *Numb3rs* (2005), series, as Ali Karimi
- *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* (2001), series, as Khalid, Rani Khan
- *Mercenary: An Extraction Series*, series, as Hamza Najjar
- *Alien Boy*, as Farouk · Executive Producer

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/waleed-zuaiter