Sheyam Ghieth (she/they) is a queer Egyptian abolitionist known for her art and design work on the comedy-drama television series Ramy, FX’s The Americans, Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black; and for producing and co-directing the award-winning Amazon web series BROTHERS about a group of transmasc friends. Most recently, Sheyam has been hosting liberation-movement art builds and co-creating zines about Covid, Palestine, and their intersections.
Sheyam was born in Cairo, and grew up attending International, American and British schools in various regions of occupation and colonization. With her family, she lived in Egypt, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Italy and Louisiana, where she developed a lifelong obsession with country music. From 2001 to 2007, Sheyam worked as a reporter for the Associated Press, Dow Jones and Bloomberg News in Rome, Italy and around Europe, before moving back to NYC and reconnecting to herself as a creative. For the past 15 years, Sheyam has created props, set dressing and signage, custom art and large-scale graphics for film and television, as well as logo, branding and identity design for several independent enterprises geared toward collective liberation.
They now live on Multnomah, Clackamas, Cowlitz land (so-called Portland, OR) where they practice collective care by wearing a respirator in public and filtering air as much as possible.
Sheyam founded and co-runs Creators for Gaza, a mutual-aid network connecting artists and amplifiers with 50+ Palestinian families surviving the genocide. Join us to amplify our list of families, or sign up to create art for a family or boost their campaign.
Sheyam + Media
“Mask Up! We Need You: Palestinian Solidarity, Covid-19, and the Struggle for Liberation by Rimona Eskayo and Sheyam Ghieth is “a primer for those who consider themselves co-strugglers for Palestinian liberation, yet may not understand the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as both a genocide in itself and a tool of genocide that perpetuates all others.” Frann Michel talks with the creators of the zine about the cumulative dangers and disparate impacts of the continuing pandemic, the interconnections of capitalism and disease, and their work to share information and resources. ”
KBOO Radio OLD MOLE Variety Hour – Listen to Full Interview
“I exist now in the world as a queer Arab abolitionist. I believe that true liberation for everybody, starting from Palestine, can happen within our lifetime. And I think it all starts with every single one of us. So, what it feels like to live my existence is to try to remind myself everyday through my art, through how I walk through the world, that the reason we’re here and the purpose that we all have is just true and free expression.”
The Great Discontent – Read Full Interview
“Reading is just recognizing shapes”
The Queer Arabs
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“For most of my life, I didn’t think I could be all the things that I am.”
Midnight r(e)volution
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