The Acting Diaries of Hani Nooni

By MONIQUE MANSOUR

Hani Nooni of Troy, Michigan has always had a love for acting and performing. “I’ve been on the stage since I was a teenager,” said Nooni. At the age of 16, he started a band in Baghdad called Pilots Bands. Two years later, it was renamed to Candles Band. Additionally, Nooni was involved in several productions at his high school. “My high school peers and I were asked to perform at different colleges in Baghdad, like Baghdad University,” said Nooni. “Most of the performances were comedies. I love to laugh and I love to make people laugh, too.”

Nooni immigrated to the U.S. in 1977. After a brief period in San Diego, he eventually settled in Metro Detroit. A few years later, in 1979, he became involved with the Iraqi Club, an independent theatre production group. The owner’s name was Salim Zeto. “Most of the shows were performed in Arabic,” said Nooni. “I was with the Club until 2010. I performed in 20 live shows with them. The title of my first production was Looking for Actor and my last production was titled George Bush.” Nooni traveled to San Diego for six shows during his time with the Iraqi Club. His first show in San Diego was performed at the El Cajon City Hall in 1987. Most of the productions were written by Hassam Zoro.

Nooni owned and operated his own liquor store while he was acting with the Iraqi Club. “I’d open the store at 10am, close the store at 10pm, drive to the auditorium and practice until 2am, go home and shower and sleep, then get up and do it all over again for four days a week,” said Nooni. “Sometimes, my wonderful wife, Intisar, would leave me a note telling me to sleep in and rest, because she was going to open the store the next day.” Hani and Intisar have five children together, three boys and two girls, and now have nine grandchildren.

“I like everything about acting,” said Nooni. “When you go onto the stage, there’s nothing else that you’re thinking about, other than the lighting and the sound. The stresses of the world melt away. Everyone turns off their telephones. It’s just you, your fellow actors, and the stage.” Nooni’s shows can be found on YouTube. “If you search for Hani Nooni, they’ll come up. It makes me so happy when people tell me that they still watch my shows.”

But theatre acting is not the only type of acting Nooni used to do. “I acted in 56 commercials between the early 80s and 2004. They all aired on TV Orient, and they were all filmed in Detroit,” said Nooni. The languages that the commercials were performed in were a mixture of Arabic, Chaldean, and English. “There was one commercial for a basmati rice brand where I was speaking Arabic with an Indian accent,” said Nooni. “Many people recognized me from that commercial.”

The subject matter of Nooni’s commercials touched upon a wide-range of businesses and practices, from basmati rice, to alarm companies, to carpentry businesses, to jewelry establishments, real estate brokerages, and doctor’s offices. “I performed in seven commercials for Dr. Sami Makhoul, a Lebanese-American chiropractor here in Metro Detroit,” said Nooni. “All of the commercials had a comedic element to them, and they were all performed in song form. Each song was a funny jingle that told a story of me and it always related to the business.”

In the late 1990s, a unique opportunity came Nooni’s way. “A group from Los Angeles came to Detroit. They were affiliated with the film 3 Kings, starring George Clooney and Ice Cube. They picked five people from Michigan to be in the film, and I was one of them. But, I decided to not go through with it in the end. I still had family back in Iraq, in Baghdad, and the film was talking bad about Saddam. I was not going to put my family in danger,” said Nooni. “I stand by that decision.”

Nooni now works as a builder and a contractor in Sterling Heights, Troy, Shelby Township and the surrounding areas. “I have a wish for the current generation of Iraqi-Chaldean Americans. I want to see a new generation of voices, faces, and stories on the stage. I want to see them reinvent theatre. We need good actors, writers, directors, and producers out there for the Chaldean community,” said Nooni. “And like to see it happen soon.”