He started as a journalist in 1978 and wrote cultural essays, articles and editorials for al-Nida newspaper, Annahar, Assafir, al-Hayat and Zahrat al-Khalij.

For television, he directed documentary films (1992–1994) portraying contemporary Lebanese artists, singers, musicians, writers and poets for Tele Liban.

From 1997 to 2000, he contributed to the editing and production of several episodes of the talk show Hiwar al-Omr, presented by Gisel Khoury and broadcast on Lbc Channel.

The Edge of Oblivion, the first volume of his Thulathiyat Abdul Jalil Ghazal trilogy, was serialised in Banipal,[3] It was followed by Sohbat al-Tayer (2011) and Barid al-Ghouroub (2014).

In 2003, El Zein started shooting a series of documentaries entitled Rawafed and broadcast on Al Arabiya News Channel.