Name: Taking Center Stage
Uploaded: 2025-05-21
Duration: 12 min 6 s
Description: Daniella Rahme has emerged as a bold voice in Arab entertainment — unapologetically Lebanese, globally recognized, and fully in control of her narrative. In this conversation, she reflects on what it means to be a cultural ambassador, owning her identity in a crowded media landscape, and using her platform to spotlight the stories and voices of the region to the world.

Daniella Rahme has emerged as a bold voice in Arab entertainment — unapologetically Lebanese, globally recognized, and fully in control of her narrative. In this conversation, she reflects on what it means to be a cultural ambassador, owning her identity in a crowded media landscape, and using her platform to spotlight the stories and voices of the region to the world.

Taking Center Stage

Conferences

One of the boldest voices in Arab entertainment, Daniela Rami, has become globally recognized while staying true to her Lebanese heritage. She joins Ellie Austin to discuss her recent starring role in Netflix's Lebanese thriller Franklin and how a new generation of Arab women is reinventing the way in which the region is portrayed on screen. Please welcome Daniela and Fortune's Ellie Austin. Daniela, thank you so much for joining us. There's a lot to talk about, but I want to start right at the beginning of your life. So, um, you grew up in Australia as the daughter of Lebanese parents, which is such an interesting combination of cultures. How did that shape your view of pop culture? Um, honestly, first of all, hi, everyone. I'm very happy to be here with you all, very happy to speak in front of you all. Uh, growing up in Australia was, uh, was always very interesting to me because I, I did grow up in a Lebanese home and I was very attached to my Lebanese culture and I always wanted to come back to, to Lebanon, to Beirut to see what it was all about because we did go back and forth a lot. What was important for me was not letting go of my roots and not letting go of who I am and when I decided to come here and, and to work here as an actress, it was very difficult. In what way? In the beginning it was very difficult because I was always seen as too western in front of people. Uh, my, my language, I had a language barrier it wasn't very, very strong, the Arabic language, and I worked on it and I wanted to, to break that and eventually I did and uh I, I learned to embrace my duality and I think that's what made me different here in the industry and. You know, that's what made me who I am. So you won Miss Lebanon, I believe, and then you entered that triggered a whole Lebanon immigrant. Miss Lebanon. I was known as the immigrant always. Wow, that's interesting when I came here, I was always the immigrant, the Australian immigrant. How did that feel? because I would imagine in Australia you also had the complication inverted commas or people saw you as it was very um. Honestly, when I, when I did make the move, oh, we're just moving your mic up so that we can hear you properly. Bear with us. See a little miracle worker, we roll with the technical glitches here. But we do want to hear what you're saying. Thank you. Is that better? Yeah, I think that's better. Where were we? We were talking about in both places, in both Lebanon and Australia, feeling slightly on the outside. Yeah, I was saying that I embraced my duality when I, when I came here and that that's what helped me embrace who I am as Daniella, and that's what made me stand out here. And when you say embrace your duality, what does that mean for women in the room who might also have 1 ft in two cultures? What did that look like for you? I mean, I had the best of both worlds always growing up, and I wanted to introduce that in everything that I would do in the way I would think, in the way I would work. Everything that I that I learned when I was in Australia, I wanted to bring it here to to my work here while I was working here. I mean, I did a bit of acting in Australia as well, so it was very interesting when I came here. The only thing that I found difficult was the language in the beginning. We had in the introduction how you've recently starred in Franklin, which is a series on Netflix, a Lebanese thriller. Netflix, um, it's a very energetic, high rolling series about a woman who reunites with her ex-boyfriend to create the perfect counterfeit $100 bill, Frankly, a very unusual concept. Um, tell me what the roles that you are drawn to at this point in your career have in common. Honestly, Franklin was one of the most interesting projects that I had done most recently, uh, because we, we moved a lot into action and this time it was. Proper action. There was a lot of production value in in Franklin. It was honestly high end. Everyone who's watching now is saying, we feel like we're watching a Hollywood series. We don't feel like we're watching something from the region, which is, I think where we're at right now in the region. I think we're really producing powerful productions at this point, and I think it is the time for this region and it is the golden age. For this region, I mean, for many years we were watching the Mexicans or the Koreans or the uh the Turks, and now we're here producing amazing projects and you know, having that opportunity for for our projects to go globally. I mean, Franklin is now top 5 worldwide on on Netflix, which is great for us and it's, it's dubbed in, I don't know, maybe 15 languages, so this was something amazing for us. That platform really gave us the opportunity to go globally, and I think that was very important for us, um, and as a woman as well, it was very important for me to be able to play an action role. I think more recently there's been more opportunities for for women to play action action roles, mostly it was more the men in the region. Now you see more women doing that. I mean, having played a sequel that went on for 3 years till death, that was a very popular one as well. It was about two female characters, so it wasn't me and a male male character, that gave us a lot of empowerment as a, as a woman, to be honest. And the reason is, you're right, having a golden age when it comes to storytelling, and there's no doubt that there's the talent pool here. There are the women both, and the men, but a lot of women both in front and behind the camera are Hollywood and External investors outside of the region taking enough notice. Of course they are, of course they are with everything that's going on here in the region, I mean, especially here in Saudi Arabia, a lot has has taken place from, from the Red Sea International Film Festival to the Joy Awards, even to the Beirut One Film Fest Festival. I mean there's a lot going on here that has that has interested investors in coming. I mean, I myself met a lot of producers when I, when I came here to a lot of the events and. They were all very interested in in working here. I think it's just the time for us. It is. What's a story or maybe a type of narrative featuring a woman that maybe Arab culture hasn't encountered yet on the screen that you hope it does in the future? Wow, that's a tough question. I'm trying to think of the roles that I've done. I would like to, to dig more deeply into, into our culture as women. I mean, I always say that change is inevitable and it has to happen and in the last years, especially here, we've seen a lot of change take place, so women have gone from one place to another. Uh, they're really standing strong today. Their their voices are heard and I would like to see something. Uh, showing how they lived and how they live today, I think that would be very interesting for us to see, to, to dig into uh a woman's story of what her life was like and what it's like today because I myself, when I come here, I ask that question. Uh, a lot. I, I say to many women, what was it like living here before? I mean, what, how was it and what does it feel like now? So I think that would be very interesting to, to dive into that. Maybe you should help create it out there that hasn't been told. Oh, I know that you're the one to help tell it. When you're in a regional production like Franklin, but you're aware that it's going to be streamed on this massive international platform like Netflix. I'm curious as to, as a storyteller, does that change the way you approach the project in any way? We're very nervous always all the time, definitely but uh we're nervous about, you know, producing something uh global because we are putting our project on a global platform today and we, we believe that we can compete internationally and we believe that our. Our films and our projects can go international. I mean, like, uh, like Money Heist did, like Squid Game did, why can't Franklin go global international and be a huge hit or if not Franklin, many other projects, so we work very carefully together. I mean the team that I work with is what's very important to me, the director, the producer that I work with, the the OP. I think this is the most important part, having a great team with you because. Once you trust the team that you're, you're with, you know you're going somewhere, you know you're going in the right direction. I mean, especially our writer, this was her first project and she was very nervous about it and we were all very interested in her script when, when she came to us with it. So, uh, yeah, I think it's just about, you know, being aligned with the team and having the same goal, having the same vision, that's very important. When you read a script, do you have a sense as to whether or not it's going to, in your words go global? Like what does that, what does that look like when you're flipping through those pages? When you read a script, you know if the story is good or not. It's just a feeling that you get and you know if this is gonna be good, um. But it's not just about the script, about having it go global, like I said, it's about all of us working together, you know, you need to have a great director to be able to portray that script the right way, um, and a great team with you. So yes, we start from the script. This is the most important part, but um. It's like a puzzle. Everything needs to really fit in correctly. What's next for you that you can tell us about? What's next? A lot of interesting scripts that I'm reading at the moment. Uh, I mean, since I started here in the region, most of the, most of the projects I've done have been very dramatic. It's all been drama or or thriller or crime or action. I'd like to dive into something, um, more comedy. I mean, I think laughing is contagious and I'd like to have the audience laugh with me a bit. Uh, I think that would be my, my next project, and I'd like to do cinema, so I have not shot a film yet. I have been shooting a lot of TV series for the last couple of years. Is that a choice or it's just the next you haven't cinema or it's just the next logical step. It's not just a choice, it's also the The wave here or the trend here, I mean every year we have Ramadan, which is 30 episodes. Uh, now we're diving more into the short miniseries. I mean Franklin was only 6 episodes, so this is what I've been doing for the last, I don't know, 8 years, 9 years. This is what I've been doing, um. I think that's just the way the industry was running here when I, when I first started. And now we're seeing a growing number of filmmakers doing really well commercially very well in the region and I think, you know, the number of those who are women is still relatively low, but it's growing, so there's huge. Yeah, I mean as as lead roles, no, we definitely see a lot of women taking lead roles. I mean, a lot of the Ramadan series that we see on air, there's a lot of women just. There standing there, so um they are very present as roles. I would like to see more female directors and producers. Um, I think that's what we're missing. There is a lot out there. I just think the opportunity needs to come their way. Final question, how does that opportunity come that way? What, what does the industry need to be doing? I mean, it's about connecting in places like these at festivals, and I think a lot of industry leaders are doing. Uh, their best at connecting, uh, women together and at pushing, uh, women to, to speak out and, and to really take their stands. I mean, a lot of the festivals that I've gone to in the last year, it's all about, it's all been about empowering women and, you know, giving, giving them the opportunity. So I think that's what's helped us a lot. Amazing. Well, we hope to see you on the big screen very soon. I'm sure we will. Daniela, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.