Theatre maker and cultural activist, Hanane Hajj Ali is an eminent figure of Lebanon’s cultural and artistic scene. Her career started in 1978 with the Hakawati Theater Theater (Lebanese Theatre of Storytellers). In 2005, she was chosen by Jean Baptiste Sastre to play the leading role of the mother in Les Paravents of Jean Genet at Palais de Chaillot in Paris. Her latest performance Jogging was awarded in August 2017 the Vertebra Prize for Best Actor at the Fringe / Edinburgh International Festival, touring in prestigious international theatres and festivals.

“Above all, do not rely on the veil she bears in the sense we often give to this scarf in the West; because Hanane Hajj Ali is anything but a submissive ­woman!… Her atypical career confirms this feeling”  Thierry Savatier (Le Monde)

In addition to her artistic activity, Hanane Hajj Ali is teaching in the Department of Theater Studies at IESAV- Saint Joseph University and in the Department of Theater and Cinema Studies at the Lebanese University. As a researcher she has contributed to the editing and writing of many books, the most important of which are Introduction to Culture Policies in the Arab World and Teater Beirut.

Beside her academic activities, Hanane Hajj Ali continues her many contributions in the framework of cultural and societal work. She is a founder and board member of several cultural institutions and artistic organizations in the Arab world such as Culture Resource- Al Mawred Athaqafy, Action For Hope, and Ettijahate, Independent Culture. She co-founded the Censorship Observatory for the monitoring and reform of censorship laws in Lebanon defending the right of free expression, public spaces, democratization and decentralization of culture.

In 2015 she was elected a member of the UNESCO Expert Facility of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and in 2017 she received the Medal of Arts and Literature from the French Ministry of Culture.