Biography

• Name: Ashraf Abdel-Baqi
• Profession: Actor, comedian, TV host; theater director and producer
• Date of Birth: 11 September 1963
• Place of Birth: Cairo, Egypt
• Marital Status: Married

Birth and Early Life

• Born and raised in Cairo.
• From a young age, he showed a clear comedic instinct and a strong pull toward theater and acting.

Education and Beginnings

• Graduated from the Faculty of Commerce, Ain Shams University.
• Studied and trained in theater, starting out on university stages and then with independent troupes in the early 1980s.
• Worked in construction and set design alongside his first steps in acting—experience that later shaped his approach to managing and producing stage shows.

Career Highlights

• Became known for light, socially grounded comedy and emerged as one of the leading faces of Egyptian sitcoms.
• Headlined the long-running sitcom “Ragel w Set Setat” (“A Man and Six Women”), which enjoyed wide popular reach across multiple seasons.
• Founded and fronted the “Masrah Masr” project, revitalizing live comedy theater for a broad TV audience from the mid-2010s through the decade’s end.
• Note: Masrah Masr’s format recorded live theater performances and broadcast them on television, bringing stage comedy to mainstream viewers.
• Ventured into TV presenting with conversational, entertainment-focused shows, including “Qahwet Ashraf” (“Ashraf’s Café”).
• Directed and produced theater, offering localized adaptations—such as farcical “play-within-a-play” comedies built around staged on‑the‑spot mishaps.
• Explanation: This style, often called “theatre that goes wrong,” turns intentional onstage errors into the core of the comedy.

Notable Works

• Television:
• “Ragel w Set Setat” (sitcom; multiple seasons).
  • Sitcom: Short for “situational comedy,” a TV format built around recurring characters and settings.

• “Qahwet Ashraf” (talk/variety show).

• Theater:

• “Masrah Masr” (a series of live comedy shows recorded and broadcast on TV).

• Comedies he produced and directed, such as “Gareema fi el‑Ma‘adi” (“Crime in Maadi”)—an Arabic localization of the “theatre‑goes‑wrong” style, popularized internationally by “The Play That Goes Wrong.”

• Cinema:

• Appeared in a large number of films from the 1990s and early 2000s, in a variety of comedic and social roles.

Facts and Anecdotes

• Credited with sustaining the sitcom format on Egyptian television for years and cementing the practice of filming theater for TV audiences through “Masrah Masr.”
• Successfully bridged art and production management, drawing on his background in décor and construction to organize and run theater shows.
• Known for a warm, spontaneous stage presence and comedy rooted in everyday situations—traits that helped him connect with a wide audience across theater and television.