Hassan Akkad
Hassan Akkad is a Syrian-British filmmaker, author, and activist. Born in Riyadh and raised in Damascus, he was working as an English teacher and photographer when he joined the 2011 protests against Bashar al-Assad. He was arrested and beaten twice; after his first detention, Assad summoned him to the palace.
In September 2015 he fled Syria, reaching the UK after an 87-day journey via Turkey and the Calais "Jungle." The footage he filmed along the way became part of the BBC's Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, which won a BAFTA in 2017. He was granted asylum and became a British citizen in 2022.
During the pandemic he volunteered as a cleaner on a COVID ward; his video message to the Prime Minister helped force a government U-turn protecting migrant care workers. He wrote the memoir Hope Not Fear and co-directed the Netflix documentary Convergence: Courage in a Crisis.
After the fall of the Assad regime, Hassan returned to Damascus in 2025. In 2026 he launched the popular "Give us the money you owe" (ูุงุชูุง ุงููููุณ) campaign, pressing public figures who pledged reconstruction donations to the Syrian Development Fund but never paid.
In June 2026, after naming figures including businessman Mohammad Hamsho and media personality Moussa al-Omar, he was summoned to the Anti-Cybercrime Branch and the Ministry of Information under an Assad-era cyber-crime law, and asked to pause publishing. He briefly lost contact before confirming he was safe.
