Elsayed Hafez is an Egyptian author, born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1948. He is a playwright, novelist, and theater director. He is one of the pioneers of experimental theater in Egypt since the early seventies.
He was well known for his experimental methods that rebelled against traditional patterns in playwriting since the release of his first experimental play “Pride of Banality in the Land of Meaningless” which aroused great controversy at the time. His plays since then have ranged between experimental theater, classical, historical and heritage theater, children's theater, comedy theater, as well as women's theater.
He has also worked in the Egyptian and Arab press for many years.
He graduated from Alexandria University in 1976. Between 1974 to 1976, he worked as a theatre specialist in Alexandria. From 2006 to 2007, he worked at the AlSada foundation in Dubai as the managing editor of Alshashah magazine, managing editor of Almughamer magazine, and a media consultant. He was an office manager at Afkar magazine in Cairo, the director of the Arab World Center for publishing and media for five years, he worked for a Kuwait politics newspaper for seven years, and was a consultant of programs development for Joint Program Production Institution in Kuwait He has many publications, including (plays for adults- plays for children), also he directed many other plays. He formed many experimental theatre groups, he also has many TV and radio series. Hafez has many books and theatrical studies. His works were published in many Arabic magazines and newspapers and he participated in many International Festivals.
