Sayed Kashua

Sayed Kashua was born in 1975 in Tira

Sayed Kashua was born in 1975 in Tira, in the Triangle region of Israel, to a Muslim Arab family. He grew up speaking Arabic. In 1990 he was accepted to the Israel Arts and Science Academy, a boarding school in Jerusalem.

He studied sociology and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he met his future wife, Najat. He then worked as a reporter for the Jerusalem paper Kol Ha'Ir and later wrote a personal weekly column in Hebrew for Haaretz and Ha'Ir.

His first novel, Dancing Arabs, came out in 2002, and he chose to write his books in Hebrew. He wrote the sitcom Arab Labor, first aired on Channel 2 in 2007, and later the series The Writer and Madrasa. His novels Dancing Arabs and Let It Be Morning were adapted into films.

In 2014 he moved with his family to the United States and taught at the University of Illinois. In 2018 he moved to St. Louis to study for a PhD in comparative literature at Washington University. As of 2026 he teaches at Boston University's college of communication.