One of Egypt’s bestselling novelists, Ahmed has also stamped himself on the local filmmaking industry as one of its most successful screenwriters. BLUE ELEPHANT 2, a sequel that he wrote to one of his own books, broke box office records in 2019. He has since teamed up with that film’s director Marwan Hamed, to adapt another novel of his, 1919, into KIRA & EL GIN, which is said to be Egypt’s most expensive film production ever at a cost of $10 million. With particular resonance for today’s pandemic, the 1919 Spanish Flu plays a significant role in that story that takes place when demonstrations occurred against of British occupation. This year, Ahmed published his new novel and presented a radio show. He is still the most active writer in Egypt and the Arab world.