At one of the most heavily attended talks of the Doha Film Festival , Arab-American comedians Ramy Youssef and Mo Amer laid out a vision for a new era of Arab storytelling, calling on regional investors and emerging filmmakers to back original narratives and expand the creative pipeline. Appearing in a conversation moderated by MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) anchor Ayman Mohyeldin, the duo urged creators to lean into narratives rooted in their own experiences and cultural specificity rather than replicating Western formulas.

“The world is not interested in seeing the Arab version of ‘Everybody Loves Raymond,’” Youssef said. “They want to see something they’ve never seen before. They want to hear from us.”

That idea grounded a wide-ranging discussion that positioned Arab creators not as ou

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