She is most recognized for her femme fatale roles and spy movies related to Egyptian-Israeli conflict and patriotic issues after 1952 revolution, such as El Gasousa Hekmat Fahmy (1994), Mohemma Fi Tel Aviv (1992).

Started her work in cinema after winning in a beauty contest in Cairo which gained her debut 1958 in a small role in Youssef Chahine's historical movie about the French colonialism in North Africa, Gamila with prominent actors Magda and Salah Zulfikar.

In 1974 she earned more recognition when she produced her own movie, Bamba Kashar, in which she played the role of the real 20th belly dancer of the same name,[5][6] it was directed by Hassan El Imam as quite similar to his typical melodrama characteristics, also contained many songs and dances performed by El Gendy, the movies starred her then-husband, Emad Hamdy, and notably despite the screening permits faced longtime problems, it had had very wide success in theaters for many weeks.

From 1980 to 1984, she starred in different commercially successful movies and some of them were well-received by many critics, such as the role of Neama't Allah in Wekalet El Balah, which is scripted by Nobel prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz, which she appeared as a very strong boss in old rural part in old Cairo and has her own warehouse, but she falls in love with a newly appointed worker and then marries him, which gives glimpses of the struggle between her rigor personality and the weakness resulted and affected by love, leading the character to explore ecstasy, jealousy and revenge.

In A'sr El Quwwa (Age of Power), played a different role she hasn't done before, as she was an aspiring recently-graduated lawyer and daughter of a billionaire who is involved along with his family in many crime and illegal activities, the movie is significantly influenced by The Godfather trilogy.