Archive 81 star Dina Shihabi is proud of her heritage: Born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Dubai, she's one of the most visible Arab women working in Hollywood today. Shihabi continues to challenge archetypes of Arab women, often calling out filmmakers to help create more fully formed, three-dimensional characters. "I audition for Arab characters all the time, and a lot of the time they are the typical Americanized version of what the Middle East conflict is and who those people are," she said in a 2018 interview with Brief Take. "Even the way the women are presented in the media, on the news, they’re presented as victims. You see the men as monsters and the women as victims."

But Shihabi, who stars in Archive 81 as a grad student investigating a mysterious tragedy in New York City in the '90s, is ready to work against the stereotypes she's come across. As she told Al Arabiya News, she is happy to bring previously untold stories to life. One of the ways she does that is to elevate other Arab voices. 

"I feel super proud [of] being Arab. There is a passion that is in our blood that I feel really drives me," she said. "I am connected to incredible Arab filmmakers and artists that have such great stories that need to be told. We all get to be a part of sharing a voice that hasn’t had the chance to really be heard."

Sharing those voices is something Shihabi feels needs to be done to help society advance. When more Arab artists share their stories, more stereotypes can be broken: "Until we humanize people from all over the world, we’re always going to see each other as ‘other’ and we’re always going to be afraid of one another,” she told Brief Take. “I think it’s our job in the entertainment industry to do this as much as possible."