Biography

• Name: Amina Rizk
• Date of birth: 15 April 1910
• Place of birth: Tanta, Egypt
• Date of death: 24 August 2003
• Place of death: Cairo, Egypt
• Occupation: Stage, film, and television actress
• Marital status: Never married
• Honorific: “Rahibat al-Masrah” — “The Nun of the Stage,” a nickname reflecting her ascetic life offstage and total devotion to theatre

Early Life and Education

• She grew up in Tanta before moving with her family to Cairo at a young age.
• She learned performance craft directly on stage, relying on practical theatrical training rather than formal academic study.

Beginnings and Entry into the Arts

• She began acting on stage as a child during the flowering of Egyptian theatre in the 1920s.
• She joined professional theatre troupes and took on progressively larger roles until she became a pillar of Egyptian theatre. As Egyptian cinema boomed in the late 1920s and 1930s, she moved into film, and later into television from the 1960s onward.

Career and Key Milestones

• Her career spanned more than seven decades, encompassing hundreds of stage performances and dozens of films and television works.
• She became synonymous with the Egyptian mother, portraying the role with depth, sincerity, a dignified presence, a distinctive voice, and a powerful inner emotional range.
• Theatre remained the core of her artistic life, while she maintained a strong and nearly unbroken presence in film and television well into her later years.

Selected Works

• Beginning and End (Bidaya wa Nihaya, 1960)
• The Nightingale’s Prayer (Du'a al-Karawan, 1959)
• I Want a Solution (Ureed Hallan)
• Land of Dreams (Ard al-Ahlam)
• The Kit Kat (al-Kit Kat)
• al-Mowled (lit. “The Mawlid,” a popular religious festival)
• The Mulberry and the Cudgel (al-Tut wal-Naboot)
• Humans and Jinn (al-Ins wal-Jinn; “jinn” are supernatural beings in Arab folklore)
• The Shame (al-'Aar)

Awards and Honors

• She received numerous official and professional honors in recognition of her lifelong contributions to theatre, cinema, and television.

Family

• She lived most of her life with her family in Cairo and was deeply attached to her mother.
• She did not marry, dedicating her life to her art.

Facts and Anecdotes

• Known as “The Nun of the Stage” for shunning the spotlight offstage and devoting herself entirely to her craft.
• She continued acting into advanced age, maintaining disciplined stage technique and a high level of performance.