Fasiya Malek

Fasiya Malek (born 1571) is an Abayadi actress and playwright. Her best known roles include Shafqat in the 1583 sitcom Class Myth, Sayyah Azi in the 1586 film Without Time, Howdrah Ghanem in the science fiction drama series Silver Switch (1601-1606), and more recently as Wasima Habib in the comedy drama series Slumlord (1605-1610).

She is also the playwright of the internationally acclaimed play Nebula, for which she was nominated for several awards.

Early life
Malek was born in 1571 in Tafari to Adila Malek, a college librarian, and Chibenashi Malek-Fallon, an accomplished Onawean playwright. The two met in 1565 at a convention themed around the classical Abayadi play Nilosum that year, and quickly became infatuated with one another, marrying only a few months later. Fasiya herself became interested in acting at age 11 after attending a performance of a selection of Nilosum with her father. She began writing her own plays shortly after and began acting in school productions at age 13. At 16, she moved to Toli Abayad to pursue roles as a writer in TV and film. She was accepted into the Abayadi National Academy of Acting and Dramatic Arts shortly after finishing secondary school.

Television and film
Malek has been professionally active in the Abayadi film and television industry since 1583. She co-starred in the sitcom series Class Myth, as well as making appearances on Love Legends, Stars, and the Rainy Chronicles. She also played Tubah Rahim in the 1587 feature film Our Lost Legacy, which premiered at the Toli Abayad International Film Festival later that year.

Her role in Our Lost Legacy helped catapult her into her breakout role in the 1596 romantic drama Without Time, in which she played the main character Sayyah Azi. In 1599, she appeared in the historic film Hamal as Saydia Mattar, wife of former Abayadi Chancellor and Prime Minister Asraf Hamal. In 1601, she began her time appearing in the science fiction drama series Silver Switch as Lieutenant Howdrah Ghanem, which would prove to be one of her most memorable roles. During her time on Silver Switch, and even after leaving the show in 1606, Malek did a great deal of work with the show’s writing team, helping write and rewrite scripts every week. She eventually became known as one of the top script doctors in Abayadi media, working on screenplays of other writers. She did uncredited polishes on movies and television shows in an eight-year stretch from 1601-1609. Her expertise in this area was the reason that she was chosen as one of the interviewers for the screenwriting documentary Flying Film in 1607. In a 1610 interview, Malek stated that she still does some script doctoring, but was beginning to pivot to more work with her in a central role.

In 1605, Malek began appearing in the television show Slumlord, with other big-names in Abayadi television such as Mandal Haider and Alima Safar. Unlike her role in Silver Switch, Slumlord was an overall more serious and darker program, touching on topics such as societal inequality and the lingering economic struggles of different segments of Abayadi society. The same year she joined, she was upped to a series regular for the show’s third season as Wasima Habib. In late 1609, Malek was cast in Iskander Shahidi’s independent horror film The Mirror Lake, which received high critical praise.

Theater
In interviews, Malek has said that she wished to write plays from a young age in order to better utilize her strengths as an actress, and to tell stories that convey ideas about strong, modern women with whom she identified. As a playwright, she has been commissioned by the West Coast Theater Group, Playwrights Dawn, and the Toli Abayad Republican Theater after her graduation from the Abayadi National Academy of Acting and Dramatic Arts. Malek wrote and co-starred in Nebula, a play that drew from science fiction-based elements she’d worked on and which focused on themes such as class conflict and environmentalism.

Personal Life
In 1595, Malek met Dokuhan Atalar, a former minor league alabu player turned player agent from Ephrazi. The two wed in 1599 and have remained together since, although spend long stretches of time apart due to the nature of both of their work. In 1607, she became a naturalized citizen of Ephrazi and currently divides her time between Toli Abayad and Caisiphon.

Malek describes herself as being raised in the Ecumenical Vayonist tradition through her mother, who is one of Abayad’s 126,000 estimated members of that branch of the Vayonist faith. While she says she is not religious, she still identifies with the Ecumenical part of her identity, according to interviews that have touched on the subject.

Activism
Malek is a vocal supporter of the Party for National Understanding, as well as the Party for Solidarity and Development and the Abayadi Laborer’s Mutualist Party in politics. In 1598, she read a letter written by a Tinifghani mother of four displaced by mudslides in northeastern Abayad who had not yet received assistance as promised by the state.

In 1601, Malek co-founded Safar Arts, an organization dedicated to continuing arts education for young people from impoverished communities. She currently serves as Executive Artistic Director on the organization’s board.