GEMYHOOD BIOGRAPHY
Mohamed Beshir Abady (also known as Gemyhood) is an Egyptian, published author, creative director, music researcher, and digital media pioneer whose multidisciplinary work has shaped North Africa’s cultural and media landscape since 2005.
Renowned for his work in journalism, digital publishing, and youth-focused cultural initiatives,Gemyhood merges compelling storytelling with innovation across platforms ranging from traditional press to online blogging. His expertise extends to digital media, where he began with
the Gemyhood Blog and website, a platform focused on cultural, artistic, and societal discussions. He emerged as part of Egypt’s first influential wave of Twitter users, quickly
establishing a prominent voice and dominating the platform across the Egyptian scene, then later expanded his presence to YouTube, SoundCloud, and Spotify, where he hosts the Gemyhood Podcast.
Deeply rooted in the creative and music scenes of North Africa, he has contributed as a columnist and music editor to leading platforms including Kasra, Ma3azef, Dostor, and ElMidan.
His work as a creative director, music researcher, and A&R specialist spans artist scouting, music curation, trend analysis, and development of the artistic vision and brand identity for lead artists in Egypt and Morocco including album rollouts, music videos, and live performances —efforts that have played a significant role in shaping the region’s contemporary sound and cultural narrative.
His hands-on approach to digital media began after his visit to Washington, DC, where he worked as Reporting Fellow at Slate.com (Washington Post Company) in April 2008. During
this time, he covered the U.S. presidential elections, publishing analyses on Barack Obama’s
campaign and Arabic popular culture, scripting a short documentary on car accidents in the DC
area, training editorial staff on content management systems, and developing an interactive election map for real-time reporting. This international experience laid the foundation for his digital editorial work upon returning to Egypt.
Using a proactive approach, he, shortly after, led major digital content initiatives for several media outlets in Egypt, beginning with the renowned independent newspaper El Dostor. In 2008, he programmed and designed its first official website, laying the foundation for its digital presence and later developing interactive media strategies and directing its web content until 2010.
He applied the same innovative approach at Cairo West Magazine, tailoring content for emerging suburban audiences, and at Al-Forssan Sports Magazine, where he introduced a new model for sports video reporting and social media integration in sports journalism.
Building on this momentum, he played a pivotal role at Welad Elbalad Media Services, where he expanded the organization's hyperlocal journalism model and digital reach. As Project
Manager for Yomaty—a collaboration with Meedan.org—he oversaw training programs for young journalists across 12 Egyptian cities, focusing on digital verification and crowd-sourced
reporting. He also negotiated a milestone partnership with YouTube, launching the first local video journalism network in the Middle East, featuring 12 city-based channels. Additionally, he
secured a strategic alliance with Masrawy, one of Egypt’s pioneering news portals, to establish a network of hyperlocal news websites, introducing innovative approaches to digital storytelling
and community-focused reporting.
Moreover, mohamed is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kntara.com in Morocco, a platform that aims to reduce the gap in the production of web creative content for the Media, Culture and Art in the Arab world. Conceived as a response to the underrepresentation of culturally-rooted
and locally-produced content online, Kntara.com serves as a hub for artists, journalists, curators,and storytellers from the Arab world to collaborate, publish, and share innovative works in thefields of media, culture, and art.
He is also the author of The Ultras Book (best-selling book 2012), which was written after many years of observation and field study about the particular football aficionados organized
movement called “The Ultras”. It’s a profound conceptualization and a precise description of the history, dynamics, life style, ideology and secrets of the Ultras movement North Africa, specifically Egypt, and its influence on football culture and youth activism.
In addition to his media work, Mohamed has a huge background in hip hop and comics. In 2006, he co-founded El Kartoona—the first Arabic underground adult comic magazine. In 2008, he
founded one of Egypt’s first street vocal bands (Sega Band). Then in 2009, he became an active member of the Egyptian RAP collective Arab League All Stars.
His creative scope also includes documentary filmmaking; he has written three short films—one examining traffic accidents in the Washington, D.C. area during an internship with Slate.com,
another shedding light on Arabs in World cup , and the last titled Gowa El-Shabaka (Online),
which explores internet freedom in Egypt. The latter was screened internationally, including at the ICANN conference in Cairo, and honored at film festivals in Italy and Germany by the Cairo
Human Rights Film Festival (CHRFF). His work has been featured by international media including CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera.
Parallel to his editorial, digital media,and music achievements, mohamed built a robust career in training and civic education. His journey began with the Egyptian Federation for Scouts and
Girl Guides, where he contributed to numerous grassroots development projects across Egyptian villages and governorates. He concluded his university scouting career with national
recognition as the Ideal Scouting Member among Egyptian universities.
From 2006 to 2018, he advanced into professional training roles focused on new media, digital campaigning, and online journalism, collaborating with leading civil society and cultural
organizations across North Africa—including Albany Associates, Transparency International, the Arab Institute for Human Rights (Tunisia), Goethe-Institut (Cairo camp; Casablanca), the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), and ADEF Arab Digital Expression Foundation. Through these engagements, he developed and led capacity-building programs, including the “Be Heard Now” initiative, designed to empower activists, journalists, and civil society groups in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco.
Mohamed was also selected for the Goethe-Institut’s Civic Education (ToT) program, a prestigious international initiative held in Egypt, Tunisia, Germany, and Morocco Following this, he began facilitating peace and tolerance workshops in Upper Egypt with the
Barah Institute in 2019.
Gemyhood is also a United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Fellow, selected for the prestigious International Fellowship Program, which facilitated cultural and media exchange
among emerging leaders from North America, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa through field visits to Brussels, London, Paris, and several U.S. states. He has represented the
MENA region at numerous global events, including speaking at the Nobel Peace Center and the Oslo World Music Festival in 2015, where he led a panel on “Music & Belonging.” His
international presence extends to appearances as a guest of honor and speaker at Le Marathon
des Mots in France, the Tunisia Marathon, and a special lecture on his book Ultras in Luxembourg.
In 2013, he won the GEN Editors’ Lab Cairo Data Journalism Prize for his groundbreaking project “VotoGraph,” which outperformed entries from leading Egyptian media outlets
including Al Ahram, ONTV, and Masrawy. Organized by the Global Editors Network and Google, this competition was part of a global hackathon series culminating in Paris and included teams
from the U.S., India, South Africa, and beyond—affirming his innovative contributions to the evolving field of data journalism.
