About Hollyoud

A Media Services & Development Company, founded in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2020.

Our story

Hollyoud Ventures was founded to develop original content for the region. The founders, Mohammed Al Fahad and Keith Manilla, set out to create content that both educates and entertains, and brings local culture to a global audience. From that, our first original franchise was born: Double8.

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As our work grew, we encountered challenges that inspired us to expand our mission. We saw talented individuals struggling to find visibility and connection in a decentralized industry, and we believed that by building the right infrastructure we could empower these creators and bring new opportunities to the region. Responding to these needs, we expanded into production services and technology solutions.

By 2023, our mission had grown to advance film and entertainment in Bahrain and the wider Middle East by building the infrastructure that connects the region’s filmmakers and creatives, investing strategically, and committing to the growth of regional and international talent. Today Hollyoud Ventures has evolved into a media services and development company, developing its own franchises, serving local and international brands, and representing international IP in Bahrain and across the GCC.

Hollyoud Ventures was founded in the Kingdom of Bahrain in March 2020 to develop original content for the region. The founders, Mohammed Al Fahad and Keith Manilla, set out to create content that both educates and entertains, and brings local culture to a global audience. From that, our first original franchise was born: Double8.

A partnership handshake at the Hollyoud booth during Comic Con Bahrain 2025, in front of the Hollyoud backdrop

BUILDING A LEGACY IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS,
THROUGH STORIES THAT INSTILL DREAMS AND VISIONS FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.

THE HOLLYOUD WAY

Mission

To revolutionize the entertainment industry by investing in innovative and diverse forms of entertainment, fostering creative talent, and leveraging cutting-edge technologies while contributing to the cultural and economic growth of the GCC region and beyond.

Vision

To become the premier catalyst for creative and technological advancement in the entertainment industry, recognized for our commitment to originality, diversity, and unparalleled audience engagement.

Our Values

Ownership

We invest in what we make and stand behind what we represent.

Commitment

We are committed to the cause, to the work, and to the people our work is meant to serve.

Integrity

We hold trust and honesty in high regard, with partners, with talent and with our audiences.

Stories that inspire

We stand behind stories that carry a message worth sharing, that move people and instill hope, courage, and a brighter view of the world around them.

Partnership

We believe in the power of working together and in lifting others. Together, we can make the world a better place.

Cultural bridge

We believe that culture travels. Our stories are rooted in the heart of Arabia and built to cross borders, and we welcome the world’s best stories to our region.

Craft

We bring the roots of the region’s storytelling craft to the global stage, integrating it with the modern arts of film and visual storytelling.

Built to last

We build for legacy. Stories, partnerships and platforms made to outlive us, carrying forward what this region has built across the ages.

The Hollyoud Philosophy

Creating a Legacy through the Art of Storytelling.

Stories connect cultures. Creativity crosses borders. Entertainment brings the world together.

Why Hollyoud, why now

Arabia has always been a place of storytelling. Across the ages, life in the desert made language our craft, and the stories we told carried our values from one generation to the next. We sat at the crossroads of the old world, where East met West and civilizations met one another, and we became the road the world’s stories travelled through, alongside its cargo. That is how Arabia came to master the art of storytelling.

With the advent of the modern film industry, culture crossed borders through the lens of the camera. Somewhere along the way, the screen lost its soul. That is why we created Hollyoud, to bring back stories worth telling, heroes and heroines worth following, and meaning that outlives the credits, adapting the craft to the modern screens of the audiences of today.