Youssef El Sherif (; born September 14, 1978) is an Egyptian actor. His birth name is Mohamed Ismail Naji ().
El Sherif began his career in 2003 in '. Then he played roles in ' (2005), ' (2005), ' (2005), ' (2006) and Halim (2006). He has starred in ' in 2006. In 2007, Director Youssef Chahine chose El Sherif to participate in his last movie before his death, Le Chaos. El Sherif played major roles in several TV series since 2011, firstly Citizen X in 2011, then Private Number in 2012, ' in 2013, ' in 2014, ' in 2015, ' in 2016 and ' in 2017. He returned to the cinema in 2018 with the movie '. then he missed three years of television drama, but he returned with first Egyptian science fiction television drama series The End in Ramadan in 2020, which Israel's Foreign Ministry condemned the series because it predicts Israel's destruction.
El Sherif collaborated with the writer and the director in several works. He collaborated with in ', ', ', The Devil's Game, ', ' and '. He collaborated with in ', ', ', ', ', ' and '. He is also the owner of the idea of several works like ', ' and '. In 2009, El Sherif married , who wrote the story of '. She is also the main fashion designer in most of his works.
His birth name is Mohamed Ismail Naji. He was born in Cairo, on September 14, 1978, to a father who works in the army. He played football in the junior team of Al-Ahly, but was injured before his moving to the first team, which kept him off the field. Then he went to work in the advertising field and graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Department of Mechanics in 2002. In 2009, Youssef El-Sherif married the editor-in-chief of Euphoria magazine, , and they have three children: the twins Abdelrahman and Abdallah as well as Jana.
In 2004, the director chose him to act for first time in ' and he chose a stage name for him, "Youssef El Sherif". After that, he participated in ', ' and ' in 2005, in which he personified the character of director Ali Badrakhan. Until the director Youssef Chahine chose him in 2007 to participate in his last movie before his death, Le Chaos. he participated in the Venice Film Festival and in the 51st session of the London International Film Festival.
Youssef El Sherif stated more than once in television interviews that he places conditions in his business contracts by not providing "steamy scenes". He said: "I don't feel comfortable at all, or find it to be right for me, to have 'steamy scenes', for example, with kissing or holding. I don't feel like it's right from my point of view, I enforce this in my life and on myself only."