Leena Alam

Film and modeling career Alam was born in 1980 in Kabul, Afghanistan. The same year Alam appeared in Shereen, a taboo-smashing feminist TV drama about the struggle of a powerful woman directed by Ghafar Azad produced at Kaboora/Tolo. In 2016 she played a title role in the film A Letter to the President for which she won the Best Actress award at Sinema Zetu International Film Festival (SZIFF) hosted by Azam TV and also was nominated for Best Actress award at the Malaysia International Film Festival (Golden Global Awards) Malaysia 2018 .

Leena Alam has appeared in documentary features such as True Warriors directed and produced by Ronja von Wurmb-Seibel and Niklas Schenckand and Playing with Fire, a film written and directed by Anneta Papathanasiou. True Warriors tells the story of a brave group of artists from Kabul whose premiere of a play on suicide attacks was attacked by a 17-year-old suicide bomber on December 11, 2014, at French Culture House in Kabul, Afghanistan. And the 2014 documentary, Playing with Fire, talks about actresses in Afghanistan who are courageous enough to be involved with theater arts and find themselves facing harsh criticism, social disapproval and even threats about their lives and the lives of their families.

She also did few short films to help young filmmakers in Afghanistan, starring in Siyar Noorzad's Moving in a Circle and Lal Alizada's Live in Grave, The Unknown by Ghafar Faizyar, Qamar by Nima Latifi and In Parentheses directed by Ghafar Azad.

Alam has been a member of the jury at the Negah-e-No Film Festival in 2014 and 2015. Member of the jury at the Afghanistan Human Right Film Festival 2015, the Sama International Film Festival in Stockholm, Sweden 2016, the 8th National Theater Festival Afghanistan 2014, an International Feature Fiction Jury member at the Adelaide Film Festival, Australia in 2017 and at Imagine India International Film Festival 2020, 2021, and 2022 Madrid, Spain.

In 2021, Leena Alam collaborated with theater artists in the US performing monologues written by playwright Angeline Larmaer. The project “The Voices of Afghanistan” was conceptualized and produced by Che’Rae Adams at the LA Writers Center and performed live for HowlRound TV. Monologues were based on true interviews of individuals still trapped inside Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul.

Human rights activism Alam was named peace ambassador of the UNAMA United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan UNAMA in 2009.

Forty days after Farkhunda, a 27-year-old Afghan woman falsely accused of burning a copy of the Quran, was publicly beaten and burnt to death on 19 March 2015, Alam joined activists in Kabul to stage a re-enactment of the killing.

Awards Best Actress – Kabul International Film Festival, Afghanistan 2008 Best Actress – Tolo Film Festival, Afghanistan 2009 Best Actress – Afghanistan Human Rights Film Festival, Afghanistan 2013 Best Actress – Negah-e-No Film Festival, Afghanistan 2014 Honorary Award – Herat International Women's Film Festival, Afghanistan 2014 Best Actress – Negah-e-No Film Festival, Afghanistan 2015 Best Actress – Mehrgan International Film Festival, Afghanistan 2015 Best Actress – Herat-International Women's Film Festival, Afghanistan 2015 Best Actress – Nomination, Seoul International Drama Awards, South Korea 2016 Honorary Award – Contribution to Afghan Cinema - The Sama International Film Festival in Stockholm, Sweden 2017 Best Actress – Nomination, Malaysia International Film Festival (Golden Global Awards) Malaysia 2018 Best Actress – Sinema Zetu International Film Festival (SZIFF) Tanzania 2019 Best Actress – Lajward National Film Festival جشنواره ملی فلم لاجورد Afghanistan 2020 In 2021 she was named as one on the BBC's 100 Women.