Alaa El Sheikh

Alaa El Sheikh is an Egyptian stand-up comedian, satirist, podcast host and creative director, born and raised in Alexandria. He made his debut as a stand-up comedian in 2010 while studying industrial and management engineering at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, from which he graduated in 2012. In February 2011, days after the fall of president Hosni Mubarak, he began uploading satirical videos to YouTube under the series title El Mowaten El Masry (The Egyptian Citizen), which became one of the most-watched Egyptian channels of its time. He built a parallel career in advertising, joining J. Walter Thompson Cairo in 2012 and later becoming Creative Director at FP7 McCann Cairo. In 2020 he launched the comedy podcast Kefaya Ba2a, which grew into one of Egypt's most popular podcasts. Alongside fellow stand-up comedian Mohamed Helmy, El Sheikh starred in the WATCH IT series Sold Out, which premiered on 3 May 2023 and featured the pair hosting a different surprise guest each episode.