Meir Suissa is an actor and director. Suissa was born in Casablanca, Morrocco and immigrated to Israel at the age of 15. He spent his mandatory military service in the IDF’s Armoured Corps Troupe (‘lehakat geisot hashirion’). Not long after completing his service, Suissa landed his earliest film roles: his debut part saw him cast in Avi Nesher’s 1978 film, The Band, and in the director’s follow up film, Dizengoff 99, the following year (1979). In both films, Suissa played a Woody Allen-esque awkward nerd character, whilst also showcasing his natural gift for physical comedy.
Since then, Suissa has appeared countless times on various Israeli theatre stages and has created and starred in a great many original entertainment shows. Two such shows he had created with television host and entertainer, Eli Yatzpan, in the 1990s – Suissa and Yatzpan First, and Suissa and Yatzpan – Second Beat, were performed hundreds of times across the country to sold out venues. Suissa has also been a frequent guest star on various TV series, including Almost Certainly (‘karov levadai’), Split, and The Arbitrator, comedy skit programme Saturday Night (‘motzash’), TV docuseries Ivgi Swissa Report (‘doch ivgi swissa’), and reality TV programme, The Unit.
Highlights of his film credits include Cowards (Avi Nesher, 1980), Mr. Leon (Ze’ev Revach, 1982), Breaking (Avi Nesher, 1985), Girls (Nadav Levitan, 1985), The Good, the Bad, and the Not so Bad (Assi Dayan, 1986), Nadia (Amnon Rubinstein, 1986), Cup Final (Eran Riklis, 1991), The Song of the Siren (Eytan Fox, 1994), She’s Got it (Jacob Goldwasser, 2006), Marriage Agreement (Menahem Golan, 2008), Guavas (Kobi Machat, 2015), and Honeymood (Talya Lavie, 2020). Suissa also directed the documentaries Café Kassit (‘kol anshei kassit’/ ‘all of Kassit’s men’ original title) (2010), and My Pretty (2015).
