Quick Facts
Biography
Najla Said (born 1974, Boston, Massachusetts, United States) is a Palestinian-American author, actress, playwright, and activist. Through her literary and academic work, Said has confronted racism, stereotyping, social and economic inequality, and among others, the specific challenges that face immigrant and second-generation Americans.
Life
She grew up on the Upper West Side. She graduated from the Chapin School and Princeton University and trained at The Shakespeare Lab at the Public Theatre. Her father was the noted postcolonial scholar and public intellectual Edward Said.
In 2010, she featured in a one-woman Off Broadway play, Palestine.
In 2013, she discussed Arab identity politics with Salon magazine and her approaching of the subject in her book Looking for Palestine.
Works
- Looking for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an Arab-American Family. Penguin Group US. 1 August 2013. ISBN 978-1-101-63215-4.
- "Najla Said: An Open Letter to Shakira: We Are Not All Israel". Guernica. June 24, 2011.