Dune star Souheila Yacoub takes the lead in Amaqa, a new film announced with a July 7 AMA. Here’s why this matters.
Souheila Yacoub Amaqa marks the next chapter for an actress who has already done the impossible: she made Hollywood notice her without playing by Hollywood’s rules. The Swiss-born performer, best known as Shishakli in Dune: Part Two, has been announced as the lead in Amaqa, with an AMA scheduled for July 7 to discuss the project.
Yacoub’s journey to this moment is anything but conventional. Born in Geneva to a Tunisian father and Flemish mother, she spent her teenage years as a rhythmic gymnast on the Swiss National Team, competing in the 2009 and 2010 World Championships. When the team failed to qualify for the Olympics, she quit the sport entirely and stumbled into acting after her sister suggested she enter a beauty pageant. She won Miss Suisse Romande 2012, enrolled at Paris’s Cours Florent, and never looked back.
Souheila Yacoub Amaqa Follows a Breakout Year
Souheila Yacoub Amaqa arrives after a whirlwind period that saw her go from European indie films to blockbuster franchise player. Her role as Shishakli—Zendaya’s fierce, no-nonsense Fremen friend—came without an audition. A Hollywood casting director called, she read the script, and Denis Villeneuve hired her after a few Zoom conversations. She spent six months in Budapest filming alongside Javier Bardem, Timothée Chalamet, and Christopher Walken. “I felt like bursting out laughing because of course I’d have accepted, even for one line,” she later said about the offer.
Before Dune, Yacoub built her reputation in Gaspar Noé’s Climax, the Canal+ miniseries Savages, and Philippe Garrel’s The Salt of Tears, which premiered at Berlinale. She founded her own theater company, 23h59, and won a Berlinale Shooting Star award in 2022. Her philosophy is simple: “What’s really radical today is nuance.” In an industry that demands actors choose a box, Yacoub refuses. She’s not Arab enough for Arab roles, not white enough for white roles, and has turned that ambiguity into her greatest strength.
Details about Amaqa remain under wraps, but the title suggests something bold and possibly genre-oriented. Yacoub has expressed interest in horror—she’s already shot Evil Dead Burn, due in 2026, and worked with Nicolas Cage on a film about the childhood of Jesus directed by Lotfy Nathan. Whatever Amaqa is, it will likely showcase the same fierce independence that defined Shishakli.
The July 7 AMA will give fans their first real look at the project. For Yacoub, it’s another step in a career that proves you don’t need to fit Hollywood’s mold to break through it. You just need talent, stubbornness, and the willingness to say yes to the unexpected.
Follow Souheila Yacoub Amaqa updates and mark July 7 for the AMA that will reveal what’s next.
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