Nelly (Egyptian entertainer)

Nelly Artin Kalfayan (نيلّي آرتين كالفيان, in Cairo, Egypt), better known by only her mononym Nelly, is an Egyptian actress, singer, comedian, dancer, television personality, and all-around entertainer.

Nelly was born in 1951 to an Armenian-Egyptian family In Cairo.

She is the younger sister of Feyrouz, a well-known child actress, and a cousin of Lubluba, another well-known Egyptian- film actress who is a little older than she is.

Nelly was married to the Egyptian film director, and later on she got engaged to the musician Moody Elemam for a very short time.

She later married Khaled Barakat (Egyptian businessman) and moved to London, then later divorced.

Her father was a film producer . and she started her career as a child actress, following the footsteps of her older sister, Feyrouz (actress), who was a very famous child actress before her.

She appeared in a several movies as a child الحرمان فيلم ,عصافير الجنة ,حتى نلتقي توبة فيلم she also took part in radio serials and the first one was شيء من العذاب with the greatest Mohammed Abdel Wahab and theatrical successes one with Farid Shawqi El dalouaa ,Her fame grew larger in 1966, at age 17, with the first film in which she had the lead role, Mahmoud Zulfikar’s "Al Murahiqa as Saghira".

One of her most critically acclaimed roles was the secondary role she played in "Al Azab Imra'a".

She has more than 60 films to her credit.

The majority of these are musicals, or films with a thread of plot and drama that is punctuated intermittently with song and dance.

Most of them have a comic spirit.

Nelly acted in seven films alongside Salah Zulfikar, also acted in a number of straight melodrama TV series, most notably "Bardis" and "Ad Dawwama".

Of her large amount of artistic work, Nelly is best known throughout the Arab World for her "Fawazir Ramadan" (فوازير رمضان) (translates as Ramadan puzzles), a set of TV comedy shows with much music and dancing, with Nelly the star of the shows.

The hugely followed shows were broadcast to tens of major Arab television stations throughout the Arab World on a daily basis during the holy month of Ramadan, mixed with general entertainment segments.

Each year's "fawazir" series was held together around a different organizing theme.

The shows included: Fawazir Arusty (1980), Fawazir Al Khatbah (1981), Fawazir Alam Wareq (1990), Fawazir Sanduq El Dunya (1991), Fawazir Om El Oreaf (1992), Fawazir Dunya Laaba (1995), Fawazir Zay El Naharda (1996).

If this proposal goes to completion, it will be Nelly's first serious drama role since 1989.

MOVIES

RADIO SERIES

Nelly's last fawazir was in 1996, but she did a show in the fawazir style called Alf Leila Wa Leila in 2001.

Since then, Nelly has turned down a number of proposals to do another fawazir by reason of "a lack of fresh ideas".

Nelly has largely retired from making films, comedy shows, and music, but she has been visible as a guest personality on a number of TV talk & entertainment programs.

She also served as a judge in 2006 in The X Factor, XSeer Al Najah TV singing talent search show.

In January 2010 it was reported that Nelly accepted an actress role in a proposed serious TV drama.