TORONTO: Abdullah Rafaah’s mornings were filled with a steady diet of cartoons on Saudi Channel 2.
Ammar Sabban meanwhile grew up with the Cartoon Network and Sesame Street and was inspired by Mel Blanc, the American actor who gave voice to Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other Looney Tunes critters.
Their paths crossed when they were cast as voice actors on the second season of “Iftah Ya Simsim,” the Arabic co-production of “Sesame Street” in Abu Dhabi during 2015 to 2017.
Rafaah was the voice actor and puppeteer for Elmo while Ammar was the voice actor and puppeteer for Ka’aki (Cookie Monster), Gargrour (Grover), Badr (Bert), and Al-Addad (The Count).
While sharing an apartment in Abu Dhabi, the duo spent countless hours dissecting the story, characters, and production quality of their favorite cartoons. Their passionate discussions gave them an impetus to start “Kartoon Karton,” an Arabic podcast, which features animation news and interviews with colleagues and experts from the industry.
Starting in 2017, they have currently completed 184 episodes with new ones released every Tuesday on podcast streaming services.
Sabban and Rafaah say it gets downloaded 60,000 times a month, primarily by Saudis between 20 to 35 years old.
Some of the more popular episodes of the show include a celebration of the television channel, Spacetoon, on its 25-year anniversary, Sabban said.
“A lot of our listeners grew up watching Spacetoon, so talking about cartoon shows on the channel was nostalgic for our listeners,” he said.
Among the niche topics discussed on the show have been psychological disorders depicted in “Winnie the Pooh,” as well as the differences between the cackle of 101 Dalmatians’ Cruella de Vil and the chuckle of Bugs Bunny.
“Our listeners have created a community; they call themselves Karateen (the plural of Karton) and it took on a life of its own,” Sabban said. “They have listening parties, both online and offline — you cannot quantify this.”
The show has also found popularity among the Saudi and Arab diaspora in the US and Australia who feel homesick, with the podcast offering a slice of home away from home.
The team also makes sure the podcast is spontaneous and not scripted.
“It feels like you’re having a genuine conversation with your friends,” said Sabban. “I was an introvert growing up and spent a lot of time by myself. It was difficult to find friends who share your interests.
“And one of the biggest reasons for why we do what we do is that we don’t want people to feel lonely.”
“Kartoon Karton” hosted a live recording session in Jeddah, inviting listeners to visit and take part. The podcasters were surprised to find nearly 200 people in attendance, some of whom had flown in from other parts of the region.
The actors said the audience found the event “therapeutic.”
“Since we started a podcast on cartoons and animation, our listeners felt empowered with what we did,” Sabban said. “And when they came to our live-recording, they saw others with the same, niche interest.”
For perhaps the first time, a group of cartoon aficionados felt like they were being seen and validated within the region — when society is constantly chiding them for watching and enjoying cartoons as adults.
While other children aspired to become a doctor or a policeman, Rafaah opted to become a lion, taking after his favorite cartoon character Simba, from Disney’s “The Lion King”.
“You have all these young adults who love animation but can’t talk about it because everybody around them thinks they’re being childish or immature,” Sabban said.
Kartoon Karton has also inspired other people to start their own show, they told Arab News. “The more the merrier,” Sabban said. “We encourage everyone to find their own niche market.”
The animation industry has seen growth globally recording an increase of five percent, reaching over $372 billion, in 2021, according to Statista. That number is forecast to grow by almost 60 percent within the following nine years.
The Middle East region and Saudi Arabia are no exception. The animation market in the Middle East and Africa is expected to account for over $2.2 billion by 2029, according to research by Data Bridge.
The appetite for local animated content is evident in the success of shows like Netflix’s “Masameer County,” which launched its second season earlier this month.
Created by Abdulaziz Almuzaini and Malik Nejer, the series follows the comical adventures of the mischievous citizens of Masameer County.
This series is part of Netflix’s five-year exclusive partnership with Saudi Arabian animation studio Myrkott, signed in 2020 to bring viewers Saudi-focused shows and films.
Rafaah and Sabbah hope to see more content creators — not just podcasters, but animators and filmmakers — creating content. There is a need for high-quality content that can compete with the rest of the world, they said.
As for “Kartoon Karton,” the team is looking at branching out and producing their own cartoon, and one day, write, create, and produce their next animation series.
What’s downloading, doc? ‘Kartoon Karton’ podcast explores the world of cartoons
https://arab.news/z8yqb
What’s downloading, doc? ‘Kartoon Karton’ podcast explores the world of cartoons
- Voice artists Abdullah Rafaah and Ammar Sabban focus on animation news and interviews with regional experts
- While sharing an apartment in Abu Dhabi, the duo spent countless hours dissecting the story, characters, and production quality of their favorite cartoons
From injury to influence: Khaled Olyan — the new voice of Arab football
- The Saudi social media star — TikTok’s Arab Creator of the Year — recounts how a setback ended his playing ambitions and pushed him to redirect his passion
- Known for memes and commentary that blend football, travel, culture and everyday life, Olyan is FIFA-accredited as a sport informant and covered AFCON 2025 in Morocco
LONDON: A broken dream launched Khaled Olyan’s unexpected rise as a Saudi social media star. Passion and perseverance took him from shattered ambitions to the Africa Cup of Nations 2025 in Morocco, where he surfed the hype while representing Arab culture.
“The journey began with a child who dreamed of becoming a football player to fulfill his own dreams and those of his family and community. After an injury ended that path, I didn’t break, I redirected my passion toward football media,” he said.
In an interview with Arab News, shortly after being crowned TikTok’s Arab Content Creator of the Year, Olyan — who has 13.2 million followers on that platform and 5 million on Instagram — credited his rise to “pure passion and honest content,” and said he had learned over time that “consistency matters more than fast virality.”
He added: “The turning point came when I realized that content can genuinely impact people, not just generate numbers or views. (Then I) stepped outside the traditional sports-content framework and linked football to culture, people, and place. It wasn’t a guaranteed path, but it shaped my identity today as a creator with a clear message and purpose.”
Olyan made history as the first regional creator to be accredited by FIFA as a ‘sport informant,’ a milestone that, he said, has given “local content global credibility and reach.”
Most recently, he was in Morocco to document AFCON, where he highlighted both the host country’s hospitality and the electric atmosphere in the grounds.
“It felt like a responsibility before it was an achievement,” he said. “I felt that my role went beyond coverage to building cultural bridges between people.”
Known for his memes and commentaries blending football, travel, culture and everyday life with feel-good humor, fans hail his “unmatched enthusiasm” and refer to him as “the voice of Saudi football fans.”
“Content today is no longer just entertainment,” he said. “It has become documentation of moments and an influence on collective awareness, especially in sports and culture across the Arab world. That (means there is) a much greater responsibility on everything I create.”
Saudi Arabia’s content-creator ecosystem has evolved dramatically in recent years, driven by a wider national transformation that has reshaped almost all aspects of public life, including sports and entertainment.
“The transformation has been rapid and significant, opening unprecedented opportunities for creators,” Olyan said. As the country moves “quickly toward global leadership in sports,” he added, it has also raised ambitions and created new routes for people to turn dreams into reality.
Across the region, the creator economy is booming, powered by a young audience, government investment and platforms such as TikTok. In 2025, the GCC alone was home to 263,000 social media influencers — a 75-percent increase in just two years according to data from Qoruz, an influencer-marketing intelligence platform.
Globally, fashion and entertainment dominate the influencer industry, but the GCC market has followed a slightly different trajectory. Lifestyle and travel also lead the charts, reflecting both regional affluence and a cultural emphasis on luxury, aesthetics, and experience-led content.
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While sport is not a major category, the research underscores what makes the GCC ecosystem distinctive: high digital penetration, brand-conscious audiences, and multilingual, multi-ethnic creators, with campaign planning often shaped by strategic decisions about language and identity.
Olyan said he sees many regional influencers following the same path as him — though not necessarily through sport. “I believe we are contributing to clearer roadmaps for anyone aiming for success through creative, values-driven content rooted in strong human principles,” he added. “Opportunities are abundant, but the real challenge lies in consistency and maintaining quality amid pressure and high expectations.”
For Olyan, Arab culture is not an add-on to, but the backbone of, his storytelling. He frames the region’s passion for football alongside questions of Arab identity, delivering it in an entertaining format that can travel beyond the usual language barriers.
“What makes sport special is that it’s a universal language. Many non-Arab audiences already follow my content daily, supported by AI tools. Arabic is my language and a core part of my identity, and I won’t change it. Instead, I’ll rely on smart translation tools and solutions to reach wider audiences.”
Olyan also noted that the region has long been framed through the narratives of people from elsewhere, often in ways that highlight only its darker corners.
“The Arab world is full of inspiring stories and a rich culture that deserves to be told through the eyes of its people, not only from the outside,” he said, adding that he hopes viewers value his videos for “changing their perspective and helped them see the truth more clearly.”
Olyan was crowned TikTok Arab Content Creator of the Year 2026 at a ceremony held in partnership with the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai.
He said the recognition was a result of more than just a run of viral moments, explaining that it came about “through structured, institutional work, team development, and linking content to long-term goals. Sustainability comes from creating moments and building value, not relying on trends or short-lived hype.”
Underscoring the double-edged nature of social media, Olyan argued that attention alone is not the point. “Real impact happens when content is used to educate and inspire people, not just capture their attention.”
He also expressed skepticism about banning under-16s from social media. Regulation matters, he said, but “awareness, smart supervision, and teaching safe usage matter more than complete bans.”
Creators, he added, are not immune to the platforms’ darker side. Psychological pressure, mental exhaustion, and long periods away from family due to frequent travel are part of the job. “I manage it through time organization, temporary breaks, and returning with renewed passion,” he explained.
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Olyan is also the founder of the O15 Football Academy, a project rooted in his childhood dream and one he sees as part of a broader sporting movement gaining traction in the Kingdom. For him, the academy is not just about competition, but about giving children a supportive environment where sport becomes a formative social practice.
“As a child, I wished such an academy existed for me and my friends,” he said. “Many talents were playing in local neighborhoods without professional guidance or support, causing real potential to be lost due to the absence of proper training environments, follow-up, and opportunities. The environment was often challenging and unmotivating.”
His academy aims to identify talent early, develop it “scientifically,” and prepare players to compete at club and national levels, but Olyan added that even those who do not pursue the sport professionally can also benefit “educationally, culturally, and socially.”
Football, he said, is “a form of soft power that, by God’s will, can positively impact many aspects of life.”
Whether creating content or helping others pursue their sporting dreams, Olyan said his guiding principle comes from a line by the late Saudi politician and poet Ghazi Al-Qusaibi — a reminder that what you hope for in small measure can arrive, unexpectedly, in abundance: “You wish for a drop of good news, but God wishes to help you with rain.”
