When Razane Jammal (Instagram) walks into a room, the atmosphere shifts. Not in the way a celebrity draws attention with careful poise, but in the way a friend bursts into a gathering, bringing energy and warmth that makes you forget you were tired a moment ago. She talks quickly, laughs easily, and is as likely to share a deeply personal memory as she is to throw in a playful joke. In her world, astrology is as real as the sun in the sky. She times haircuts with the phases of the moon, avoids big decisions during Mercury retrograde, and will happily explain the difference in influence between a new moon and a full one if you are unsure. Beneath the humour and charm is a woman who has navigated the global entertainment and fashion worlds on her own terms, with resilience and an instinct for timing that would impress even the most sceptical astrologer.
Her career has unfolded like the lunar cycle she loves. Some moments have been bright and visible, others shadowed and still, but each one has shaped her into the artist and woman she is today.
Jammal’s presence on screen is magnetic, but her journey has been anything but easy. Many, internationally, first discovered her through The Sandman on Netflix, where she plays Lyta Hall, a character in the sprawling DC Comics universe. For Jammal, it was a breakthrough not just in scale but also in the way it broke long-standing stereotypes. “My baby face often lands me in innocent roles, but I was grateful for the chance to step into a character that carried both fierceness and strength,” she says. This time, she was allowed to be layered, strong, and human. She is also, she points out with pride, the only Arab in a DC Comics production, an achievement that still feels significant in an industry where representation moves slowly.
For her, acting has never been just about memorizing lines and playing a part. It has been a mission to challenge how Arab women are seen on screen. As a child, she never saw anyone who looked like her in the films she loved. She dreamed of Hollywood as a place where she might fit in, only to discover later that her identity complicated that dream.
Coming from a multicultural family, her upbringing took place across Lebanon, the United States, London, France, Dubai, and Egypt. She calls herself a third culture child, belonging everywhere and nowhere at once. Casting directors in the West often said she did not look Arab enough, expecting darker skin, darker hair, and a heavy accent. In the Arab world, she was sometimes told she was too Western, her Arabic too accented. Rejections from both sides could have been discouraging, but Jammal took them as challenges.
She threw herself into mastering accents, learning not only multiple Arabic dialects but also French, British, American, and Scottish. At first, she shaped herself into what she thought others wanted her to be. Over time, she began to embrace the fact that she did not need to fit anyone’s mould. She could create her own place in the industry.
Fashion embraced her, valuing her uniqueness, while film sometimes resisted. She learned that fashion offered polish and diplomacy, while acting demanded vulnerability and rawness. For Jammal, balancing the two worlds is a constant negotiation, deciding how to be refined without losing authenticity. Jammal was appointed as Dior’s Fashion Ambassador for the Middle East in 2022 and then became the One Dior Women’s Ambassador for both fashion and beauty in 2024. She also became a Cartier ambassador for the Middle East in the same year, representing the brand in campaigns and events.
Her career faced a major turning point when her mother fell ill. At the height of her momentum, Jammal chose to become her mother’s primary caretaker. “Everything happens for a reason,” she says now, with a calm certainty. That period taught her to value family over ambition, and to understand that slowing down is not the same as giving up. When her mother passed away, Jammal found comfort in knowing she had been present for every moment. That devotion is something she carries with her into every decision.
Today, Jammal’s professional life moves at high speed. In 2022, she appeared in the Pan-Arab series Thaman, the first season of The Sandman, and the action period project Kira & El Jinn. This year brought Al Qadar, filmed in Turkey, and Asad, a film with Egyptian star Mohamed Ramadan. Her role in The Sandman grew in its second season. She also became a published author with her children’s book Lulu and Blu, about a vegetarian lioness who dares to live differently. The story mirrors Jammal’s own life, finding the courage to defy expectations, embracing friendships across differences, and creating a world on her own terms. The book has been a success and will soon be integrated into schools. She is now preparing to launch a children’s app and is exploring the idea of adapting the book into an animation or audiobook.
Despite the hectic schedule, she is entering a new stage of life. At thirty-eight, she speaks openly about wanting to slow down, and perhaps to start a family. “From one country to another, I cannot sit still. Now, all I want is to rest,” she says. She is not certain where that will be, but she knows it will be somewhere in the Middle East.
Her connection to Lebanon is deep and unwavering. She describes walking through Beirut and knowing she is never truly alone. If her phone dies, ten strangers will offer her a charger. She loves sitting in a hair salon surrounded by women of all ages, exchanging stories over cups of coffee. She treasures the sense of community, which she also finds in her professional collaborations. She works only with brands and teams that align with her values. Her partnerships with Cartier and her talent agency, MAD Solutions, are built on mutual respect and genuine connection. “Everything has to come from the heart,” she says. “When it does, everything aligns and all the doors open.”
She has learned to trust in timing. Losing out on a Marvel role with director Mohamed Diab once left her in tears for days, but soon after she was cast in The Sandman, which fit her far better. “Everything meant for her happened for her. Everything meant for me happened for me,” she says of her friend, who got the Marvel part.
She is convinced she is protected, perhaps by her late mother, perhaps by that belief itself. That trust has made her fearless. She no longer hides her emotions or forces herself into a polished public image all the time. Therapy has helped her understand her own protective mechanisms, regulate her nervous system, and reconnect with her inner child. She believes being Lebanese is its own kind of superpower, shaped by the traumas of political crises, wars, and economic collapse. These experiences taught her resilience, the impermanence of money and status, and the importance of savouring every moment with loved ones.
When asked about love, Jammal expresses that she believes in love at first sight and knows through experience that everything happens when you least expect it to.
One thing she will not do is compromise her work. She will continue to reinvent herself, to create, and to say no to projects or partnerships that do not feel right. Her art and photography, which she has never shared publicly, may one day find their audience. Her book may evolve into new forms. The important thing is that every choice remains authentic.
This clarity comes from two decades of persistence. Early in her career, she often faced dismissive questions like “What have you done?” She worked on three projects that screened at Cannes, acted in a Golden Globe–winning series, and appeared in a Kanye West film, yet Lebanon did not embrace her immediately. Egypt did, in 2014, when she starred opposite Hend Sabry in Embratoreyet Meen, audiences responded enthusiastically. That momentum slowed when she stepped back to care for her mother, but her return has been powerful.
Her friendships are as central to her life as her work. She is fiercely loyal, the friend who shows up first in a crisis. She surrounds herself with women who inspire her and share her values. When she launched Lulu and Blu, friends offered space, catering, and design as gifts, creating an event that embodied the book’s message about finding your tribe.
She laughs about being called a diva. For her, the word means being unapologetically herself and maintaining high standards, not arrogance. Her humility comes from her parents, who were the kind of people to stop and help strangers on the road. Her siblings keep her grounded, uninterested in her fame.
Off camera, she describes herself as unhinged, funny, and unfiltered. She values privacy and resists turning her personal life into constant content. “If my selling point is my personality, then you always have to be likable,” she says. “You cannot have a down day.” She prefers to let the work speak for itself.
Jammal’s story is one of persistence, self-definition, and alignment. She grew up without a clear blueprint for the life she wanted, so she created her own. It is a story of taking risks, pausing for family, and having the courage to be seen as she truly is.
Like the heroine in her children’s book, Lulu, Jammal has stepped outside the rules of the animal kingdom. She has crossed invisible boundaries, made friends in unlikely places, and proven that the most important work is creating a world that feels true. When she says everything happens for a reason, it is not a hollow expression. It is the lived truth of a woman who has spent her life chasing the moon and, at last, finding a home beneath its light.
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