Lewis Alsamari

Screenplay multi-award nominated Lewis Alsamari was born in Baghdad to Iraqi parents. He fled Saddam Hussein's brutal army and military intelligence, was shot in the leg, almost eaten alive by desert canines while fleeing alone on foot at night across the unforgiving Iraqi-Jordanian desert. His safety in Jordan was compromised so he was forced to flee once again to South East Asia on fake documents. He developed severe PTSD, which then triggered a stabbing stomach-ulcer disease, but he arduously fought on till he finally reached his real home - the United Kingdom - where he spent some of his early childhood. His critically acclaimed biography "Out Of Iraq" was published by the Penguin Random House Group in several languages worldwide, and was launched in North America by Crown USA as "Escape From Saddam". The book also chronicles Alsamari's continued battle to save his family from torture and persecution at the hands of the same barbaric military he once escaped. He married a Jewish girl from the north of England, and embarked on an international sting operation to bring his family back to Britain. After several failed attempts - most notably when Lewis, his mother, siblings and his British wife were captured and locked up in Kuala Lumpur in ghastly and putrid jail cells - he nevertheless kept trying over and over again till he finally succeeded in bringing his family to England. Alsamari received his LLB Honors Law degree from a prestigious London University and in 2021 will be awarded his LLM Master of Laws postgraduate degree from the number one law school in the UK. In the meantime, he also trained as a screenwriter and was nominated for best script in the Austin Film Festival script competition in Sept. 2020, a semi-finalist in the Filmmatic script competition in Sept. 2020, and a nomination in the Screencraft best script competition in November 2019. In sports, Alsamari is a black-belt Muay-Thai fighter. In art, he published his first sci-fi-fantasy graphic novel titled - Scions: www.ScionsKingdom.com Alsamari is also known for his leading acting role in Universal Studios' Oscar nominated, BAFTA winning film United 93, the BAFTA and BerlinAle award winning BBC series Occupation and the new US film - Blackline. Described by many as an epitome of diversity, Alsamari's Iraqi-British voice and uniquely raw and virtuous perspective comes from decades of suffering not only as an under-represented Middle Eastern actor and refugee... but also as a writer, soldier, liberator and intellect. His work has only just begun.