Background and career
May El Calamawy (Arabic: مي القلماوي, romanized: Mayy al-Qalamāwī: Egyptian Arabic: [ˈmˤɑjj (el)ʔælæˈmæːwi]; born October 28, 1986) is an Egyptian-Palestinian actress. Calamawy gained recognition for her portrayal of Layla El-Faouly / Scarlet Scarab in the Marvel Studios miniseries Moon Knight (2022), marking the first Egyptian and Arab superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Born in Bahrain to an Egyptian father and a Palestinian-Jordanian mother, Calamawy was raised across Bahrain, Qatar, and the United States. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in theatre studies from Emerson College and later trained at the William Esper Studio in New York. Calamawy began her acting career in independent cinema, making her feature film debut in Thursday (2006), followed by a series of short films, followed by roles in the Hulu comedy-drama Ramy (2019–2022), Together Together (2021), The Actor (2025) and Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026).
