Ahmed El Attar is an Egyptian theatre director, playwright, and independent cultural manager. He is the founder and general director of El Masrah Productions, a Cairo-based company that develops and supports a wide range of artistic and cultural projects. 

He is also: 

     - Founder and Artistic Director of D-CAF – Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival, the largest multidisciplinary festival of contemporary arts in Egypt and the region (established in 2011). 

     - Founder of Studio Emad Eddin, a unique initiative providing training and rehearsal spaces for performing artists in Egypt since 2005. 

     - Founder of Maktabi, the first coworking space in Cairo dedicated to the creative industries (2018). 

     - Founder of the Arab Arts Focus, the largest showcase platform for contemporary Arab performing arts (2014). 

     - Co-founder of Alaa Feyn, the first free bilingual (Arabic–English) mobile application serving as a comprehensive art and culture guide for Cairo and Alexandria (2022). 

His plays, which he both writes and directs, have been presented in major theatres and festivals in more than twenty countries worldwide. 

In 2007, Egyptian actor Sayed Ragab won Best Actor at the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre for his performance in El Attar’s play Fuck Darwin or How I Learned to Love Socialism. El Attar himself received the Sawiris Foundation Award for Best Playwriting for his work Life is Beautiful or Waiting for My Uncle from America. 

Among his recent productions, The Last Supper (written and directed by El Attar) explores the disconnection of Egypt’s bourgeoisie from their surrounding reality. The play was featured in the official programme of the Avignon Festival 2015 and the Festival d’Automne in Paris, touring internationally until 2019. 

He also translated and directed Every Brilliant Thing by British playwright Duncan Macmillan, which premiered in Arabic at Rawabet Theater in Cairo in May 2022 before opening the first season of the Sharjah Performing Arts Program later that year. The play continues to tour in Egypt and across the Arab world. 

In January 2023, El Attar premiered The Hidden Magic of the Pillars of Society at the Dramaten – Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden, becoming the first Arab director to write and stage a play for this prestigious institution. 

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to theatre, El Attar was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic in 2018. Since January 2022, he has also served on the board of the International Society for Performing Arts (ISPA), making him the first Arab to join the governing body of the world’s largest performing arts network.