Biography
Iyad Hajjaj is a Palestinian-American actor, director, producer, and filmmaker born on May 9 in the 1970s, in Rafah, Gaza. He grew up among twelve brothers and sisters in one of the largest families in his city, and started acting as a teenager in his home country. He is a SAG-AFTRA member based in Los Angeles, a former rehabilitation specialist at Stanford University, and the founder of Missing Peace Pictures, Inc. and president of the non-profit I Came for Peace. He won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 168th Film Festival (2012) for Refuge, and produced, directed, and starred in the multi-award-winning film Dreams I Never Had (2018) alongside Malcolm McDowell and Robin Givens. He is also developing the home-invasion thriller Ten and a Half Minutes, based on a true story, and recently toured his short film My Foot is in Heaven (2026), which tells the story of a father whose daughter is wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. His most notable film credits include The Hunt (2020, as Backpack Refugee), Escape Room (2017, as Ammon), A Private War (2018, as an Iraqi Captain), The Wizard (2016, starring Jon Voight), Thunder Run (2016, directed by Simon West), Call Me King…
