Netflix has tapped Nuha El Tayeb, its content director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Turkey, to oversee all Arabic content following the recent departure of Ahmed Sharkawi.

C21Media revealed earlier this week that Amsterdam-based director of Arabic original series Sharkawi had left Netflix after five years.

The global streamer has now confirmed to C21 that El Tayeb, who has been with the company since 2018, will oversee all Arabic content on the platform.

El Tayeb, a former senior manager for Arabic channels in the programming department at OSN, spent two years as director of acquisitions at Egyptian broadcaster CBC before joining Netflix.

During her time at Netflix, El Tayeb has agreed deals with the likes of Saudi Arabian animation studio Myrkott, covering new series and movies as well as existing comedy Masameer.

News of El Tayeb’s appointment was first reported by Deadline.

Sharkawi joined Netflix in 2019, helping build the Arabic content team and slate and leading the development of Arabic shows including Paranormal, Abla Fahita, AlRawabi School for Girls, Finding Ola, The Exchange and Crashing Eid.

Sharkawi’s next move is not yet known, but in a LinkedIn post he mentioned being “excited for the new adventures ahead.”

During his career, Sharkawi has overseen the development and production of over 500 scripted drama hours for Egypt and the Middle East.

He was among the founding team of Sony Pictures Television (SPT)’s operation in the Middle East and headed the scripted development division at SPT Arabia between 2010 and 2013.

After SPT, Sharkawi went on to set up the development divisions at various companies, such as iProductions Egypt and Beelink Productions, where he served as scripted development consultant for all its drama projects.

tagged in: Netflix, Nuha El Tayeb