Cherien Dabis

شيرين دعيبس

Born: Omaha, Nebraska, United States

Domain: Film & Television

Recognition: GLOBAL

Biography

Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and actress whose work has brought the immigrant and Palestinian experience to mainstream American and international screens. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, to a Palestinian father and a Jordanian mother, she grew up between the American Midwest and Jordan, an experience of cultural in-betweenness that became the central theme of her cinema. She studied at Columbia University's graduate film program, where she developed the voice that would define her career. Her debut feature, "Amreeka" (2009), follows a Palestinian single mother who immigrates with her teenage son to small-town Illinois on the eve of the Iraq War. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, winning the International Critics' Prize (FIPRESCI). It was widely praised for its warmth, humor, and humane portrayal of Arab immigrants at a moment of intense anti-Arab sentiment in the United States. Dabis followed with "May in the Summer" (2013), which she wrote, directed, and starred in; it opened the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance. She later built a substantial career directing prestige American television, including episodes of "Ozark," "Empire," "Quantico," and "Ramy," becoming one of the few Arab-American women working at that level in Hollywood. In 2025 she premiered "All That's Left of You," an epic multigenerational drama tracing a Palestinian family from the 1948 Nakba to the present. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and marked her most ambitious statement on Palestinian history and dispossession, cementing her reputation as a storyteller who moves fluidly between intimate family portraiture and sweeping historical narrative. Throughout her career Dabis has insisted on telling Palestinian and Arab-American stories with nuance and emotional truth, refusing both victimhood and caricature, and opening doors for a generation of diaspora filmmakers.

Why This Person Matters

Dabis brought the Palestinian immigrant experience to mainstream American cinema and television with rare warmth and dignity, becoming one of the most prominent Palestinian women directors working internationally.