Before the lights, the cameras, and the casting calls, Mouhaned Ben Amor was just a regular kid chasing dreams on the football pitch. From the age of 7 to 13, he trained at Brentford Academy in England, sharp on the ball, quick on his feet, and dreaming of Premier League glory. But something else was brewing off the field.

Mouhaned didn’t spend his evenings buried in homework. Instead, he was glued to the screen, mesmerized by movies. “I wanted to be inside the film,” he would later recall. “I felt I had something… a kind of charisma.” That spark, untamed and raw, was about to be ignited.

One ordinary day in class, the teacher assigned a simple poem reading. Most students read it flat, like an obligation. Mouhaned? He performed it. He dropped to his knees mid-recital, channeling sadness and stress with a level of passion no one expected. The room fell silent. His teacher, Mr. Watkins, pulled him aside. Mouhaned feared punishment, but instead, Mr. Watkins gave him a direction: “You should try theatre.”

At first, Mouhaned resisted. He still clung to his football dreams. But destiny had its ways.

At a family gathering that same year, 13-year-old Mouhaned stood up and began imitating his relatives one after another. Comedy, tragedy, drama, his range stunned the room. “That was the first time I saw their faces change,” he said. “They were shocked. And I loved that feeling.”

Not long after, he joined a school play. Despite the social pressure, drama was seen as “uncool” in his school, Mouhaned, a popular student, refused to conform to the stereotype. He auditioned, and in a moment of pure instinct, stole the show. With no training, he landed the lead role. The performance was raw but magnetic, and his circle encouraged him to keep going. That’s when Mouhaned asked himself the big question: Why am I not doing this for real?

He started auditioning locally, without drama school training, experimenting with performance, absorbing, learning on his feet. And then came a turning point.

At 15, while performing in a local play, a woman from the audience approached him backstage. Her friend owned a small talent agency, and she believed Mouhaned had something special. That day, he signed with his first agency.

Soon after, he landed a small but meaningful role in Mariah: The Diva, the Demons, the Drama, a biopic about Mariah Carey. Mouhaned played her older brother in a flashback scene. It was only three to four minutes on screen, but to him, it meant the world. “That was the moment I saw myself on the silver screen,” he says. “It wasn’t big, but it was real.”

At 14, Mouhaned returned to Tunisia for a trial with Étoile Sportive du Sahel and got accepted. But his mother, his number one supporter, wanted him to stay in England to focus on his education. She had been there every step of the way, riding long train journeys with him to auditions, believing in him when no one else did. After his parents’ divorce when he was just 8, his mother became his anchor.

When Mouhaned passed his A-levels, he chose to study Sports Education, Business, and Drama, a mix that reflected both his past and his future.

And then, the galaxy came calling.

At 17, Mouhaned auditioned for an untitled project, one that turned out to be Star Wars: Andor, the acclaimed Disney+ series set in the iconic universe. He had no idea at the time that it was Star Wars, a franchise that had deeply influenced him since age 11, when he watched a Star Wars film in a Tunisian cinema and took a photo in front of the poster. It felt like fate.

Andor ran from 2022 to 2025, with 12 episodes of 40 minutes each. Landing a role at that scale, at that age, was almost unheard of. But Mouhaned wasn’t just any teen actor. He was a kid from Sousse with football boots and a dream, a performer who turned a classroom poem into a calling, and a boy who listened to his heart even when it meant walking away from what was expected of him.

Now, as he continues to grow, experiment, and break through, Mouhaned Ben Amor is not just acting, he’s writing his own story. One scene at a time. At 17, Mouhaned auditioned for an untitled project, one that turned out to be Star Wars: Andor, the acclaimed Disney+ series set in the iconic universe. He had no idea at the time that it was Star Wars, a franchise that had deeply influenced him since age 11, when he watched a Star Wars film in a Tunisian cinema and posed proudly in front of the poster. It felt like destiny.

Season 1 of Andor didn’t give Mouhaned a major role, but that didn’t stop him from treating it like one. Balancing his A-levels with shooting days, he committed fully to the part, pouring energy, focus, and professionalism into every moment on set.

Off-camera, Mouhaned would approach the veteran actors to ask for advice, eager to learn. Their reaction surprised him. Many told him they had no advice to give, because they assumed he had already trained at a top drama school. They were struck by his instinct, his composure, and his natural range. Some even called him “Premier League material,” placing him among the top tier of young actors to watch.

For Mouhaned, it was a powerful affirmation. Not just of his talent, but of the path he had taken, the sacrifices, the risks, the quiet resilience. He wasn’t just part of Star Wars, he had earned his place in the galaxy.

In 2022, as his journey continued beyond Andor Season 1, Mouhaned Ben Amor took a significant step forward by signing with one of London’s most distinguished talent agencies, Hamilton Hodell. Known for representing established names such as Eddie Redmayne, Gemma Arterton, and Tom Hiddleston, the agency’s roster signaled that Mouhaned was entering serious territory.

Then came the phone call of a lifetime. Unbeknownst to him, Andor Season 2 was in production and he was about to play a much bigger part. Tony Gilroy, the showrunner, reached out personally. Gilroy outlined an exciting plan: Mouhaned would come on board as a supporting lead, one of the top 10 featured actors in the series. It was a moment that affirmed Disney producers’ confidence in his talent.

By January 2023, at just 19, Mouhaned was thrust into seven intense months of filming across 12 episodes. Working alongside acclaimed actors including Forest Whitaker, Diego Luna, Adria Arjona, and Stellan Skarsgård, he found himself in near-heaven. The veterans welcomed him warmly; to their surprise, they told him, you already carry the presence of a seasoned actor. Some even went as far as calling him a veteran in their circles.

Despite the grueling schedule, shooting days from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Mouhaned described the experience as the best of his life. The cast and crew’s support, the creative energy on set, and the sense of belonging all combined into something profoundly transformative.

Today, Mouhaned has broadened his horizons even further. He’s developing his skills in writing and directing, and was on the verge of working on the highly anticipated Netflix series Wednesday, starring Jenna Ortega. His passion for acting has truly reshaped his life: he now maintains meaningful connections across the industry, and is already shortlisted for Emmy Awards recognition. Yet amidst his rising global profile, he remains deeply connected to Tunisia, his home country, and aspires to be more widely known there.

He is now filming a Netflix series called Extraction while also directing a Tunisian film that is set to hit theatres and make its way into international festivals next year. This marks another bold step in his journey, balancing between Hollywood-scale productions and bringing authentic Tunisian stories to the big screen.

Muhannad Ben Amor