A thriving writer/director, Mohamed Diab studied Commerce and Business Management. After graduation, Diab worked at one of the international banks in Cairo, but he soon realized his love for writing, which made it difficult for him to continue in the bank business. He chose to pursue his passion by studying scriptwriting at the New York Film Academy in 2005. His debut film, Ahlam Haqiqia (Real Dreams) (2006), was a commercial success. Afterwards, he wrote El Gezira (The Island) (2007), which made over EGP 20 million in theaters. His directorial debut came with 678, which he also wrote. The film won over 20 international awards and was an unexpected commercial success internationally. In 2014, he wrote the screenplay for the black and white film Décor and El Gezira 2, which was also a box-office hit. His feature film Clash (2016) was Egypt's official submission for the 2017 Academy Awards for Best Foreign-Language Film and opened the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.