Samia Gamal (Arabic: سامية جمال, born as Zaynab Khalil Ibrahim Mahfuz (Arabic: زينب خليل إبراهيم محفوظ), 5 March 1924 – 1 December 1994) was an Egyptian belly dancer and film actress.

[2] After working as an extra in films such as The Determination (1939), she became a leading lady in a number of Egyptian cinema classics, such as Red Lipstick (1946), Lady Ghost (1949), The Hawk, The Count of Monte Cristo (both 1950), The Monster (1954), The Second Man (1959), and Sukkar Hanem (1960).

[5] Born in the small Egyptian town of Wana in March 1924, Samia's family moved just months later to Cairo and settled near the Khan El-Khalili bazaar.

It was many years later that Samia Gamal met Badia Masabni, the owner of a big Cairo nightclub back then.

Badia Masabni gave her the stage name Samia Gamal, and she began her dance career.

Samia Gamal incorporated techniques from ballet and Latin dance into her solo performances.

Farid helped place Samia on the National Stage by risking all he owned, and managed to borrow to produce a film (Habib al omr) co-starring with her in 1947.

[8] In 1958, Samia Gamal married Rushdy Abaza, one of the most famous Egyptian actors with whom Samia starred in a number of films, notably the box-office hit The Second Man (1959) alongside Egypt's iconic actor Salah Zulfikar, one of the most famous Egyptian actors, and Sabah, famous actress and singer and directed by the legendary Egyptian film director Ezz El-Dine Zulficar, this film became an Egyptian masterpiece and the most notable role in Samia Gamal's cinematic career.