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Sirine Saba will join the Hogwarts faculty as Professor Pomona Sprout in HBO’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, playing the Herbology teacher and head of Hufflepuff House. The Beirut-born Lebanese-Palestinian actress arrives after almost three decades on British stages and in television, film and radio. The first season premieres on OSN+ in the Middle East at Christmas 2026.

Details

• Beirut beginnings: Born in Beirut in 1975, Saba lived there until age eight before moving to Cyprus, where she grew up. She has described herself as half Palestinian and half Lebanese. Childhood visits to London with her father exposed her to West End productions, particularly Me and My Girl and Cats, reinforcing an ambition to act that she traced to her earliest memories.
• RSC breakthrough: Saba graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1998. She left without an agent and began in small fringe productions, then secured a Royal Shakespeare Company contract six months later. Her first season included Miranda in The Tempest, followed by work in The Winter’s Tale, Pericles, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Midnight’s Children.
• Stage career: In 2024, she returned to A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the RSC, playing Titania and Hippolyta before the production moved from Stratford-upon-Avon to London’s Barbican. Her wider credits span the National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe, including Phaedra, Nation, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra. She later played Zoe in Some Demon and playwright Sarah Ruhl in Letters from Max.
• Screen roles: Her television work includes Beyond Paradise, Midsomer Murders, Doctor Who, Cleaning Up, EastEnders, Unforgotten and Silent Witness, plus the recurring role of Patricia Ghraoui in Holby City. Her films include Maestro, Exhibition and The Black Forest, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and received a Michael Powell Award nomination for Best British Film. She has also recorded for BBC Radio and Audible.
• Arab stories: Saba has repeatedly worked on stories linked to Lebanon, Palestine and the wider Arab world. Her roles include Luma in Baghdad Wedding, the wife of an imprisoned Palestinian bookseller in The Keepers of Infinite Space, and Nahla in Dalia Taha’s Fireworks. In July 2026, she joined Voices from Lebanon in London, performing material assembled from WhatsApp conversations among Lebanese women living through war and displacement.
• Hogwarts cast: Dominic McLaughlin leads as Harry Potter, with Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley. John Lithgow plays Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer is Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu portrays Severus Snape and Nick Frost plays Rubeus Hagrid. Warwick Davis returns as Filius Flitwick, while Richard Durden and Brid Brennan join as Cuthbert Binns and Poppy Pomfrey.

What’s next

The first full trailer is due September 2, ahead of the Christmas 2026 premiere. Season two, adapting Chamber of Secrets, reportedly began filming in August and is likely to give Saba a larger role.