Study Shows That Most TV Roles Available To Middle Eastern And North African Actors Are Still Of The “Terrorists And Tyrants” Variety

If you’ve read any of my Stream It Or Skip It reviews, you know that I’m not a fan of how people of Middle Eastern heritage —Muslims, in particular— are depicted on TV. It feels like, for the most part, the only roles on American TV that are available to Middle Easterners and North Africans (MENAs) are gun-toting terrorists or snarling dictators.

Now, a new study confirms that I wasn’t just imagining things. The MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition examined the television landscape in 2017 and noted that, while a few actors of MENA heritage have been able to transcend the “terrorists and tyrants” trope, for the most part, the picture is bleak.

According to the study, 92% of scripted shows do not have any MENA actors, and of the ones that do, 90% of those only have one actor, which leads to tokenization. When a actor who is Middle Eastern of North African portrays a character that’s of MENA heritage (which happens only about half the time), 78% are playing either dictators or what the study called “trained terrorists/agents/soldiers.” In 67% of MENA roles, the character speaks with an accent.

“Such stereotypes can have harmful effects on audience perceptions. More complex and relatable MENA characters can counter anti-Muslim and anti-MENA sentiment and policies,” Nancy Wang Yuen, the co-author of the study, told Deadline.

The report does cite the few instances where MENA actors are playing non-stereotypical MENA roles, from Iranian-American actress Necar Zadegan, who played a divorce attorney on Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce, to Turkish-American actor Ennis Esmer’s role as a tennis instructor in Red Oaks. And even though Rami Malek’s Emmy-winning role as Eliot Anderson in Mr. Robot doesn’t identify as MENA, the study favorably cited his role because of its complexity. The report identifies every MENA actor from 2017’s shows, including Tony Shalhoub, Nasim Perdrad, Yara Shahidi and Jaime Camil.

There’s hope on the horizon, as Deadline cites ABC’s development of a comedy about a Middle Eastern-American family, and Jinn, Netflx’s first Arabic original series, but, as the report cites, the television industry has a long way to go.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Where to stream Mr. Robot