Background and career
Leenā Alam (Persian: لينا علم;) is an Afghan film, television, and theater actress. She has appeared in films such as Kabuli Kid, Black Kite, Loori, A Letter to the President and Hassan. She is widely known to have worked on film and TV that speak of child marriage, gender inequality, women's rights and social conflicts.
She has also been known as "Shereen of Afghanistan" (شیرین افغانستان) after playing in the taboo-smashing feminist television drama, Shereen (شیرین), the first of its kind to have been made in Afghanistan, directed by Ghafar Azad and produced by Kaboora and Tolo TV. Shereen was nominated for Best Mini-Series Drama alongside The Night Manager, Mr. Robot and Deutschland 83 and Leena Alam was nominated for Best Actress at the Seoul International Drama Awards 2016.
In 1991, Alam and her family moved to the United States of America because of the civil war in her homeland. She began her acting and cinema career in 1998.
In 2021 she was named as one of the BBC's 100 Women.
