Clara Khoury

Clara Khoury — Biography

Clara Khoury is an Israeli Palestinian-American actress who moves between Arab, Israeli and international productions, working in Arabic, Hebrew, English and French. She became known in film through Rana's Wedding and The Syrian Bride, and in 2025 she starred in Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

She grew up in Haifa, studied cinema at the Open University in Tel Aviv and drama at the Beit Zvi acting school. She began on stage, performing in Anouilh's Antigone, Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie and Wilde's Salome in Arabic, Hebrew and English, and led Death and the Maiden at the Al-Midan Arabic Theater in Haifa. Her screen debut was Hany Abu-Assad's Rana's Wedding (2002), shown in the International Critics' Week at Cannes, which earned her Best Actress at the Marrakech festival. Eran Riklis's The Syrian Bride (2004), winner of the Audience Prize at Locarno, brought her international recognition. Forgiveness, Ridley Scott's Yalanlar Üstüne (Body of Lies), Lipstikka, which competed at the 2011 Berlinale, The Inheritance and Laila in Haifa followed.

On television she won two Israeli Academy of Film and Television best actress prizes for Arab Labor and also appeared in Homeland and Baghdad Central. In 2024 she won Best Actress at the Casablanca International Film Festival for Thank You for Banking with Us. She is the daughter of actor Makram Khoury and lives in California with her family.