International Star You Should Know: Aiysha Hart
BREAKOUT ROLE
Aiysha Hart’s exotic looks (her mother is English, her father Saudi Arabian) is the perfect mix for the BBC’s “Atlantis,” a fantasy series that plays on the legend of the undersea world. Her role as Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, grows in the show’s recently wrapped second season. “There’s a lot more for her and for me,” says the 26-year-old Hart.
FAST START
Her family lived in Saudi Arabia for a while when she was a child, but she was raised mostly in Surrey, England, and speaks Arabic. She studied at King’s College London, and then went to drama school. While still a student, she landed roles in Tobe Hooper’s horror film “Djinn,” then as a Muslim woman targeted by her ultraconservative family for an honor killing in Shan Khan and 108 Media’s “Honour”; Paddy Considine plays the hit man hired by her family.
TOP SCRIPT
Hart calls the low-budget “Honour,” on the Brit List of best unproduced screenplays, a huge break. “It’s rare that you read a script and feel like that character is yours,” she says.
NO BOUNDARIES
Hart also has futuristic thriller “400 Boys” in the can, backed by China Hollywood Film & Entertainment, in which she stars with an international cast including Spanish thesp Maria Valverde (“Exodus”) and Hong Kong actress Karen Ng. “All the roles I have chosen so far are so completely different — completely different races, completely different characters, in different time periods, different genres — and that’s what I want to continue doing.”
