Famous Israeli Media Personalities

Israeli-Arab travel vlogger Nuseir Yassin, better known to netizens as Nas Daily, has gained global fame with his 1000 daily one-minute Facebook and YouTube videos. His vlogs cover everything from luxury resorts to villages. He has also launched NAS Academy to train upcoming vloggers and video creators.

Ofra Haza was an Israeli actress and singer who achieved great popularity in the Western world where she came to be known as the Madonna of the East. An influential cultural figure in Israel, Ofra Haza played a major role in popularizing the Mizrahi culture. During her illustrious singing career, Haza earned several gold and platinum discs.

Yair Lapid is an Israeli politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Israel since June 2021. He is also the current Minister of Foreign Affairs in Israel. He is credited with founding the centrist Yesh Atid party. A former journalist, Lapid was also known for his skills as a writer before entering politics in 2012.

Born in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, then part of Israel, Ami James began illustrating at age 6, perhaps to compensate for the absence of his artist father, who had abandoned the family. Mentored by tattooist Lou Sciberras, he now owns several tattoo studios and the online tattoo community Tattoodo.

Russian-Israeli author Dmitry Glukhovsky gained fame with his first novel, Metro 2033, which he published on his own site at age 18, and which later inspired an interactive experiment and a video game franchise. He has also worked for Mayak Radio Station, EuroNews TV, and Deutsche Welle.

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was held by Palestinian militants from 2006 to 2011 and thus became significant in the Israeli political scene. He was eventually released as part of a prisoner-exchange deal, mediated by Germany ad Egypt, which required the release of over 1,000 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners.

Rula Jebreal is a Palestinian journalist, foreign policy analyst, novelist, and screenwriter. Her first novel Miral was adapted into a film of the same name. Directed by Julian Schnabel, Miral had Freida Pinto playing the title role.

Originally called Amos Klausner, Oz Amos was an Israeli short story writer, novelist, essayist, and educator, known for his advocacy of two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Professor Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University, he wrote forty books, many of which have been translated into forty-five languages, earning him  numerous international awards and honors, including Legion of Honour of France.

Max Brod was a Czech German-speaking Jewish author, composer, and journalist. He studied law at the German Charles-Ferdinand University and proceeded to pursue a career as a journalist and composer. He worked as an editor and literary adviser for the Israeli national theatre for three decades. He was a close friend and biographer of writer Franz Kafka. 

Israel Prize-winning author David Grossman is best known for his iconic books on Israel, such as See Under: Love and The Book of Internal Grammar. Born into a working-class family, he also developed his left-leaning traits early in life and later stepped into political activism, too.

Benny Morris is an Israeli historian who was a professor at the  Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His work on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict won him both praise and criticism from both sides of the political divide. He studied history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has a doctorate in modern European history from the University of Cambridge. 

Popular Russian host and actor Ivan Urgant is best known to audiences as Boris from the Yolki comedy film series. Dubbed the Russian Jimmy Kimmel, he is believed to have fled to Israel, as his show Evening Urgant was taken off the air soon after he criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Meir Kahane was an Israeli rabbi, best remembered as the founder of the Kach Party. He moved to Israel after being imprisoned for alleged militant activities. Though he acquired a seat in the Israeli parliament, his party was banned for its racist nature.

Serbian-born Israeli politician Yosef Lapid started his career as a print and broadcast journalist who went on to win the prestigious Sokolov Award. He then focused on politics and joined the Zionist Shinui party, before switching to the Secular Faction. He also served as Israel’s deputy prime minister and minister of justice.

Palestinian doctor of medicine, author and academic Ghada Karmi is associated with the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter as research fellow and lecturer. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Karmi has penned several articles on Palestinian issues in Wayback Machine and in newspapers and magazines like Journal of Palestine Studies and The Guardian.

Yossi Sarid was a news commentator and politician who was an important member of the Knesset between 1974 and 2006. From 1996 to 2003, he led the political party Meretz. A former Minister of the Environment and Minister of Education, Sarid also served as the Leader of the Opposition between 2001 and 2003. Sarid is also remembered for his uprightness.

Israeli author and artist Amos Kenan was born to a construction worker father and dropped out of high school to join a Zionist movement. Part of the Canaanite movement, he penned a satirical column and plays that were inspired by the theater of the absurd. He was also a talented sculptor.