DUBAI: Fans of actress Dina Shihabi have taken to her Instagram account to show support for the rising star’s latest show, thriller mystery “Archive 81.”
Set to be released on Jan. 14, the show follows an archivist who takes a job restoring damaged videotapes and gets pulled into the vortex of a mystery involving a missing director and a demonic cult.
The series stars Mamoudou Athie, Evan Jonigkeit and Shihabi.
Shihabi takes on the role of Melody Pendras, a documentary filmmaker who leads an investigation into a dangerous cult.
“Archive 81 follows archivist Dan Turner, who takes a job restoring a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994. Reconstructing the work of a documentary filmmaker named Melody Pendras, he is drawn into her investigation of a dangerous cult at the Visser apartment building. As the season unfolds across these two timelines, Dan slowly finds himself obsessed with uncovering what happened to Melody. When the two characters form a mysterious connection, Dan becomes convinced he can save her from the terrifying end she met 25 years ago,” Netflix explained in its synopsis of the show.
Fans of Shihabi, including Saudi singer Tamtam, took to her comments section on Instagram to share their excitement, with the latter writing “can’t waittttt (sic).”
The actress, who spent her childhood between Riyadh, Beirut and Dubai, was born in Saudi Arabia to Saudi-Norwegian journalist Ali Shihabi and her mother Nadia, who is half-Palestinian and half German-Haitian.
Shihabi moved to the US in 2007 and was the first Middle Eastern-born woman to be accepted to The Juilliard School and the New York University Graduate Acting Program. She began appearing in short films in 2010, but her big break came in 2017 with the role of Hanin in “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.
She previously spoke to Arab News to share her advice for up-and-coming actors.
“Look around to the people that are around you right now and start making things. And focus, hard work, determination, passion (are important). Those are real things,” she said. “I’m still working really hard to make the things I want happen and I don't think it’s ever going to end. If you choose this life, you are choosing a life where you have to really work hard.”
