We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ghasan Alesayi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ghasan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I write confrontational comedies so every script has to have at least some element danger. And I know when I’ve struck serious gold when I get scared to put down what’s making me laugh on the inside.

Two years ago, I wrote a comedic short that I’m working to get made at the moment. It revolves around my inner conflict with my Muslim upbringing and familial expectations as an agnostic man living in a western world. The topic itself, most would not touch with a ten foot pole. The jokes I make in it took me eons to put on paper because of how terrified I was to put my real thoughts out there.

Now the real risk: pitching this project. The title alone is a shocker. That same year, I attended Toronto International Film Festival by myself to network hard and pitch this project to anyone that would hear it — the project that should’ve never seen the light of day. Risk turned to reward because not only did I get great interest for the project, but I was able to secure a producer, a fantastic cinematographer, and people who believe in it just as much as I do.

Ghasan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Ghasan Alesayi, but the film industry knows me as Sam Al Esai. I am a Toronto-based actor, writer, and director. I’ve been working professionally in the business since 2014, but obsessed with acting and entertaining since I was 10.

Like many acting-school graduates, my sole mission was to be an actor, but after getting a taste of writing and directing my own ideas, I’ve since learned there’s a bigger world to create out there and it sits in the twisted mind behind my curly afro.

What sets me apart? I’m unafraid to be me. Where others are afraid to stand on their darkest ideas in the face of scrutiny, I lean into them face first with the hopes that my skin touches fire and hardens over time. As Camus once said, ‘create dangerously’.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

To start a conversation no one else is willing to have.

Big budget blockbusters are cool. Having your name in lights is cool. But you know what’s cooler? Having people passionately argue your ideas for you. And the flipside! People passionately arguing against you.

That’s how change is made. That’s how we all find solid new ground for us stand on.

My biggest fear is people walking out of my film saying, ‘that was nice’, go home, and fall asleep. That lets me know I did nothing to affect them — both viscerally or intellectually. That lets me know I did not do my job as an artist.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

In my experience, non-creatives don’t get it. They don’t understand how we can believe in ourselves so much. It’s all a pipedream. Until it isn’t.

And I get it. It’s terrifying to have to face a public stage. It’s foolish to think that *you* can make something happen. It’s the attitude of ‘who do you think you are?’. It’s hard to think you could rise up when so many others have fallen. ‘Why are you any different?’

My only answer to that is ‘why not me?’

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.samalesai.com
• Instagram: @sammyfatstaxx
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-al-esai/