Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jonathan Akkawi. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jonathan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The biggest risk I’ve taken, and this may sound weird, is to believe in myself. As a creative and someone that works in the Entertainment Industry, there are going to be a lot of people out there that do not believe in you or even want you to succeed. Hollywood at the end of the day is show BUSINESS and if you are not operating as a business (even yourself as a sole entity) then they don’t want anything to do with you. I am in this industry as a creative to create art and tell stories that I believe need to be told even if at their basic root they’re also a form of entertainment. There are also many out there that do not wish for your success. It is also a cutthroat industry and so people are competing to sell a project or get a project green lit into development – and so people are not going to believe in you or necessarily support you. That is why the biggest risk you can take working as a creative is to believe in yourself and/or believe in the project you are developing (directing, writing or producing). Without your own belief in your own projects, how do you expect it to get made? Recently, I had an amazing director-writer approach me to help her bring her first narrative story to life on the big screen. We submitted the project to several film grants and funds, in the hopes of securign some funding to produce the project – but every single on rejected us. They rejected us cause they didn’t believe in us as first time independent filmmakers; they didn’t believe in the project cause they thought the project was too political (when it was not – the story revolves around three immigrant adult children who have to deal with the fallout of a tragedy that strikes their homeland where there parents happen to be); they didn’t believe in the project cause they didn’t think that Arab/MENA characters or artists deserve the screen time. After a year of this, I turned to my director-writer and took the risk of saying, “let’s do this ourselves. Independently.” Now doing that was a big risk – finding funding, and how to properly allot it, finding the right team and making sure everyone is comfortable with it, securing a location, purchasing insurance, securing camera and lighting equipment and props and catering. There are so many moving parts to producing and making a film, regardless of its length. But at the heart of it – if you don’t believe in yourself and believe in the project – it will not get made. So take that risk. Believe in yourself. Believe in your work. And believe in your talents. This is a necessary skill and life lesson regardless of the field you are in or the task at hand.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a multi-hyphenate artist – a filmmaker, actor, producer and screenwriter that also dabbles in stand-up comedy, script doctoring and film festival programming. I started my entertainment company, Bougie Arabs Entertainment as a means to start my #ArabsBreakHollywood movement to allow Arab and other Middle Eastern artists to reclaim their voices in the entertainment industry and tell our stories properly rather than the one-dimensionalized and stereotyped portrayals of our culture and people. I have already produced two short films that are hitting the film festival circuit soon – “Alitisal” and “Angel”, both stories about POC families experiencing grief and mental health crisis in their own ways; while in production on another “Small Town Witches” and an upcoming secret project in pre-production.

I also run two different podcasts – “The Hollywood Chai” and “The Script Doctors” (both available on Spotify and Apple Podcast). The former is an interview show in which I invite fellow creatives to talk about their journeys through the entertainment industry and their experiences trying to break through, allowing them to spill their “chai” (tea). The latter is a podcast that takes popular films or TV pilots and my co-host Jon Cooper of Cooper Home Entertainment and I discuss things we’d fix or change about the script if were at the helm.

I went to UC Berkeley for my undergraduate degree but studied Molecular & Cellular Biology and Theatre Studies with an Emphasis in Acting because my Middle Eastern background made me want to study something more grounded and tangible as a career in the arts is more difficult. But after graduating and working in corporate for a little bit, I went back to study at UCLA for screenwriting, enrolling in their graduate professional program for screenwriting…then enrolled twice more – one for TV Writing for Comedy and another for TV Writing for Drama which launched my career through connections made and understanding more of the craft.

I have always been driven to work in the Entertainment Industry because I love to entertain people – making them laugh, cry, learn, or just make them feel something. But what really got me to want to pursue the job full time was when I was auditioning for projects without an agent in the 2010s and constantly being told that I don’t fit into the criteria they were looking for – that I looked too ethnic for the role or that I was too white passing for an Arab/MENA role. It was disheartening to be told this by people who were not of a BIPOC background and thus it made me want to write and produce the projects that I want to be in and see.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Good question. In my view? Literally just LISTEN to us. Let us tell our own stories. Let us bring to life our creativity in the medium of film and TV. Trust us to bring the vision of these diverse stories to life. Many people think that a BIPOC or LGBTQ+ or a female-driven story won’t reach the masses (as if white straight male stories do…like really?) but in reality they really do – many of the stories that successfully get made and told appeal to a diverse audience and crowd because of the central themes that a lot of creatives and artists imbue in them. So just LISTEN to us.

But another important way that society can help is to show up for us – look for diverse stories that exist out there. Check out your local theatre and see if there is a play going on that you can go and watch. Check the movie theatre to see if there are any indie films or projects being screened that otherwise wouldn’t get the big budget green lit from Hollywood. Check out art galleries and spaces displaying works by marginalized and underrepresented artists. There are spaces out there that do support us but we need the people to come out and support and show the gatekeepers that we really know what we’re doing and what we’re creating appeals to everyone universally.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built my social media presence online by just being myself. I know that sounds very boring and cliché but it’s the truth! In a day and age where everyone wants to be a social media influencer, so many of these profiles are fake and trying to emulate what they see their favorite celebrity or Tiktok star doing. But people constantly tell me they find my feed and my content so refreshing cause they that I’m down to earth and never doing anything to show off or click bait or aim to get more likes and views. I like to share the ups and downs of my life and career on social media cause you never know what someone out there is going through and I want to be able to show them that they are not alone. But i also love to be goofy and funny and show my sense of humor that is unique to me and it makes people want to follow just for a change of pace (or so I’ve been told). But I also love to amplify and uplift the works of other fellow artists, especially underrepresented and marginalized voices like LGBTQ+, women and BIPOC communities. So seriously, just be yourself! The rest will follow!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @thejakkawiarab @bougiearabsentertainment @alitisalthefilm @thehollywoodchai
• Twitter: @thejakkawiarab @jakkawistudios @alitisal @chaihollywood

Image Credits

Meramees Nino, Michal Urbansky