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Buzz Feed
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Actors Who Hated Their Costars
If you dislike someone you work with, you probably keep it to yourself or only tell your closest friends. Some actors, however, are willing to tell the whole world! Here are 26 actors who revealed the costars they hated working with: Discussing the "most difficult celebrity" she's worked with on Watch What Happens Live in 2016, Busy Philipps said, "James Franco and I really didn't get along when we were on Freaks and Geeks. We were 19, and we really, really disliked each other. It's well-documented. He shoved me to the ground once. It was really brutal... We're friends now and we really like each other now, as adults, but as kids, we did not get along." In her memoir Sorry Not Sorry, Naya Rivera wrote, "One of the Glee writers once said that Lea [Michele] and I were like two sides of the same battery, and that about sums us up. We are both strong-willed and competitive — not just with each other but with everyone—and that's not a good mixture. As the show progressed, though, that friendship started to break down, especially as Santana moved from a background character to one with bigger plot lines and more screen time. I think Rachel —erm, I mean Lea— didn't like sharing the spotlight. On top of that, she had a hard time separating work from our outside friendship, whereas it was a lot easier for me. I'm not offended when people offer feedback or criticism, and if things get heated on set, I try to keep perspective." She continued, "We're all stressed, yes, but we're all working toward the same goal, so laugh it off and keep it movin'. Lea was a lot more sensitive, though, and it seemed like she blamed me for anything and everything that went wrong. If I'd complained about anyone or anything, she'd assumed I was bitching about her. Soon, she started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn't say a word to me for all of Season 6. Lea and I definitely weren't the best of friends, and I doubt we'll ever sit on her couch and eat kale together again, but the rumors of our 'feud' were blown out of proportion." In the 2023 docuseries The Price of Glee, Naya's dad said that his late daughter always had "trouble with" Lea. He said, "There was always a fight between them. Always. Everybody knew. Everybody saw it. They hated each other but, at the same time, respected each other's talent." Responding to rumors of a feud with Naya on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2014, Lea said, "It's really unbelievable the amount of things that can just be completely made up. And it's really frustrating. The way people like to pit women against each other is really annoying, and it's sad." In 2022, Superbad writer/actor Seth Rogen told Vanity Fair that Jonah Hill "immediately hated costar Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Seth said, "He was like, 'That was fucking with my rhythm. I couldn't perform with that guy.'" Producer Judd Apatow added, "Jonah said, 'I don't like that guy. I don't want him doing it.' And I said, 'That's exactly why we're hiring him. It couldn't be more perfect. The fact that it bothers you is exactly what we want.'" Jonah himself said, "Chris was really, really amazing off the bat. And I think he was really annoying to me at that time." Seinfeld guest star Armin Shimerman "hated" Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards. At the 2017 Florida Supercon, he said, "Hated them. They were non-communicative, ugly, I was the guest star. The episode's called 'The Caddy.' I played a caddy. I played the caddy. I was on that show for six days, five days. Every day, nobody said a word to me except cues. Nobody came up and started a conversation. I was already on Deep Space Nine. I was a series regular on a... TV show. That's not acceptable... If you have a guest star, if you have a day player, if you have an extra, you do not avoid them. You speak to them. We're all human beings together... And those four people on Seinfeld never said boo to me." He also alleged that, once, when the gaffers had to redo the lighting, he was sitting between Jerry and Julia while they waited for half an hour. They talked to each other the entire time, never once acknowledging him. He said, "It was as though I wasn't there. So, I'm not very fond of them." Sarah Silverman also had a terrible time guest-starring on Seinfeld. On a 2021 episode of her podcast, she said, "I was Kramer's girlfriend, and I will tell you this: Everyone was really nice, but I had a bad experience with Michael Richards. The first scene I shot, I'm in bed with Kramer, and he's scared because he hears noises. He says something like, 'What was that noise?' Then my line is, 'It's probably the wind.'" However, she flubbed her line and said, "It's probably the rain." Sarah continued, "This guy, Michael Richards, breaks character and just starts ripping me a new asshole... He points to the window and he goes, 'Do you see rain in that window? Do you see rain in that window?' and I go, 'No,' and he says, 'Then why did you say rain? It's not rain. There's no rain in that window! The line is wind!" She felt a "lump in [her] throat" and was upset he got away with treating her that way. The next day, while shooting a diner scene, he acted polite and tried to talk to her. She recalled, "And finally, I just cut him off, and I say, 'I don't give a fuck!'... And he's kind of stunned, and it's like he snapped out of it a little. He understood what I was saying was, 'You don't talk like that and act like nothing happened. I'm not going to be one of those people that joins in and acts like nothing happened. That was shitty behavior." Afterwards, he was more gracious. According to a 2016 Us Weekly report, Castle costars Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic "completely despise each other." A source alleged, "They will not speak when they are off set, and this has been going on for seasons now... This season, it got so out of hand they made Stana and Nathan go to couples counseling together." However, Stana's reps told the outlet that she "had absolutely no issues" with Nathan, and his reps didn't respond to their request for comment. On a 2015 episode of the podcast B.E.E., Alex Pettyfer revealed which Magic Mike costar allegedly had an issue with him. He said, "It's true. Channing Tatum does not like me, and for many reasons — many being my own fault." The problems started with the "bad boy" reputation that preceded Alex. He said, "[Channing] was not sold on me being a part of this film because he looked upon me as being a risk." He continued, "I didn't speak on the movie [set]. I was scared to speak. I actually did my work, and I sat in the corner and listened to music because I had been told that anything I do is wrong by my reps. I was very insecure as a human being, and that also gave me a bad rep because they said, 'Oh, Alex thinks he's fucking better than everyone else because he doesn't speak to anyone,' and that's not true. I was just genuinely nervous and scared to be myself." When everyone returned to set for reshoots, Channing "had already told everyone he didn't like [Alex], and what Channing says goes, because he's a movie star." Then, things soured even further when Alex ended up owing one of Channing's friends unpaid rent, so Chaning sent him a "negative email." On the set of The Notebook, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams argued a lot, and it reached a point where he felt he couldn't work with her. Director Nick Cassavetes told VH1, "Maybe I'm not supposed to tell this story, but they were really not getting along one day on set. Really not. And Ryan came to me, and there's 150 people standing in this big scene, and he says, 'Nick, come here.' And he's doing a scene with Rachel, and he says, 'Would you take her out of here and bring in another actress to read off camera with me?' I said, 'What?' He says, 'I can't. I can't do it with her. I'm just not getting anything from this.'" Nick continued, "We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other. I walked out. At that point, I was smoking cigarettes. I smoked a cigarette, and everybody came out like, 'All right, let's do this.' And it got better after that, you know? They had it out...I think Ryan respected her for standing up for her character, and Rachel was happy to get that out in the open. The rest of the film wasn't smooth sailing, but it was smoother sailing." Of course, that's not the end of the story! Ryan and Rachel famously experienced an "enemies to lovers" romance, and they dated for two years after the movie's release. In 2024, Laura Benanti told That's a Gay Ass Podcast that she "never liked" Zachary Levi, whom she costarred with in a 2016 Broadway run of She Loves Me. She said, "Everyone was like, 'He's so great!' And I was like, 'No, he's not. He's sucking up all the fucking energy in this room.'" He tried "to mansplain everybody's part to them" and kept trying to host dance parties. She said, "He really sucked everybody in with his dance party energy, like, 'We're doing a dance party at half-hour.' I was like, 'Good luck, have fun.'" She also called Zachary out for his Instagram Live where he implied that their fellow costar Gavin Creel died as a result of the COVID-19 vaccine. She said, "For him to use Gavin's memory — a person he was not friends with — to use his memory for his political agenda and to watch him try to make himself cry until he had one single tear, which he did not wipe away, I was like, 'Fuck you forever.'" In a 2017 YouTube video, Ashley Tisdale revealed that she and her High School Musical costar Lucas Grabeel "hated each other" while filming. She said, "We were not close. We were not good friends... I think we just didn't know each other, and I was definitely, like, a lot like Sharpay... I have to say, after we wrapped, though, I've always had a love for [Lucas]." In 2015, Gillian Anderson told the Guardian that there were "definitely periods" where she and her The X-Files costar David Duchovny "hated each other." She added, "Hate is too strong a word. We didn't talk for long periods of time. It was intense, and we were both pains in the arse for the other at various times... I'm not going to get into it. I'm not even going to begin to get into that. But we are closer today than we ever have been." In 2014, Freddie Prinze Jr. told ABC News, "I did 24. It was terrible. I hated every moment of it. Kiefer [Sutherland] was the most unprofessional dude in the world. That's not me talking trash, I'd say it to his face. I think everyone that's worked with him has said that. I just wanted to quit the business after that. So, I just sort of stopped." He continued, "I went and worked for Vince McMahon at the WWE, for Christ's sake, and it was a crazier job than working with Kiefer. But, at least, he was cool and tall. I didn't have to take my shoes off to do scenes with him, which they made me do. Just put the guy on an apple box, or don't hire me next time. You know I'm 6 feet, and he's 5'4." In a since-deleted Instagram post from 2016, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson said, "This is my final week of shooting #FastAndFurious8. There's no other franchise that gets my blood boiling more than this one. An incredible hard working crew. UNIVERSAL has been great partners as well. My female co-stars are always amazing and I love 'em. My male co-stars however are a different story. Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don't. The ones that don't are too chicken shit to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses. When you watch this movie next April and it seems like I'm not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boiling — you're right. Bottom line is it'll play great for the movie and fits this Hobbs character that's embedded in my DNA extremely well." The post led to speculation of a feud between him and Vin Diesel. Then, in 2018, The Rock confirmed that the two didn't film any scenes together. He told Rolling Stone, "That is correct. We were not in any scenes together.' Detailing how things unraveled, he said, "Vin and I had a few discussions, including an important face-to-face in my trailer. And what I came to realize is that we have a fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach moviemaking and collaborating. It took me some time, but I'm grateful for that clarity. Whether we work together again or not." In 2021, Vin shared his side, telling Men's Health, "It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character. My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be. As a producer to say, Okay, we're going to take Dwayne Johnson, who's associated with wrestling, and we're going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don't know — Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks. That's something that I'm proud of, that aesthetic. That took a lot of work. We had to get there, and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love. Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I'd have to do in order to get performances in anything I'm producing.' Thankfully, they were able to work things out, and in 2023, the actors finally laid their feud to rest. The Rock returned to the franchise for Fast X. He tweeted, "Last summer Vin and I put all the past behind us. We'll lead with brotherhood and resolve - and always take care of the franchise, characters & FANS that we love." In 2016, Diane Kruger told BuzzFeed that her Troy costar Peter O'Toole "wasn't very pleasant" to work with. She said, "It kind of sucked. He's dead, so I can say that. But he wasn't the most pleasant person." In Leslie Jordan's career, there was only one actor he didn't enjoy working with — Newhart actor Mary Frann. When he guest-starred on the show in Season 1, he was "warned" about her. In 2021, he told Los Angeles magazine, "The set was so loose and relaxed, and we were having such a good time, but then [the] door opened, and she came in. And so I went that afternoon to my agency, Cunningham, Escott, and Depine, who handled me for commercials. And Mr. Escott, T.J. Escott, unbeknownst to me, had been married to Mary Frann. I didn't know that, and I walked in there and said, 'What a bitch!' and everybody in the office was going 'Shhhh!' And then from the office, T.J. said, 'I agree with everything he's saying!'" When The Vampire Diaries first began filming, Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley "despised each other so much that it read as love." In 2019, Nina told the Directionally Challenged podcast, "We really just didn't get along the first five months of shooting... We ended up getting to a good place, and it was fine. Of everyone, I think I probably see him the most and hang out with him the most. We're probably the closest." Responding to her comments, Paul told Entertainment Tonight, "We totally clashed. We didn't [get along]. Creatively, it just wasn't in sync. The fans would never have known that. We're basically driving each other insane and then after a few seasons, we developed this absolute mutual love." Charlize Theron reportedly had a contentious working relationship with costar Tom Hardy on Mad Max: Fury Road. According to Mark Goellnicht, a camera operator who was interviewed for the book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, the actors argued after Tom was three hours late, while Charlize had been waiting on set in costume the entire time. Mark said, "[Tom] was quite aggressive. She really felt threatened, and that was the turning point because then she said, 'I want someone as protection.' She then had a producer that was assigned to be with her all the time." In an interview for the same tell-all book, Charlize corroborated Mark's account. She said, "It got to a place where it was kind of out of hand, and there was a sense that maybe sending a woman producer [Denise Di Novi] down could maybe equalize some of it. A lot of what I felt was coming my way from Doug [Mitchell, another producer] was … oh, [screw] it. I'll just say it. It was a man forgiving another man for really bad behavior, and I didn't feel safe." She said that, after the director barred Denise from set, she "still felt pretty naked and alone" and like she was "walking on thin ice." Charlize said, "We were either fighting, or we were icing each other – I don't know which one is worse – and [our costars] had to deal with it in the back. It was horrible! We should not have done that; we should have been better… It was not a conducive working environment, I apologize profusely...I don't want to make excuses for bad behavior, but it was a tough shoot. Now, I have a very clear perspective on what went down. I don't think I had that clarity when we were making the movie. I was in survival mode; I was really scared shitless." However, Tom said, "She's a very serious actor. So, I don't see why she would ever be intimidated by me or in any way feel frightened. I think that was more bollocks." In 1993, Julia Roberts told the New York Times her I Love Trouble costar Nick Nolte could be "completely charming and very nice" but "he's also completely disgusting." She said, "From the moment I met him, we sort of gave each other a hard time, and naturally, we get on each other's nerves... He's going to hate me for saying this, but he seems [to] go out of his way to repel people. He's a kick." In 2022, Nick told Insider that he hadn't reached out to her to bury the hatchet, "though it's buried." He said, "I mean, it was absurd what we went through. It was partly my fault and a little bit of hers. Julia got married at the beginning of that film, and it was one of those things where I just approached it all wrong." In 2014, Jennie Garth confirmed longstanding rumors of an on-set feud with her Beverly Hills, 90210 costar Shannen Doherty to E! News. She said, "We were locked in this sound stage for 14-16 hours every day. There were times when we loved each other, and there were times when we wanted to claw each other's eyes out." In her book Deep Thoughts From a Hollywood Blonde, Jennie added, "It was more of just young girls finding their way and finding their individual voices. Shannen and I are both Aries women, we're both very strong, independent women, so we butt heads a lot. Now, as grown women, we happen to get along as well." Patricia Neal was reportedly originally "thrilled" to work with George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's. However, she soon saw that, since the last time she'd seen him, "he had grown so cold and conceited." Eventually, she "hated" him. In Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson, she said, "On one occasion, Blake [Edwards, the director] and George almost had a fistfight. We were trying to block a scene, and George wanted to change everything that Blake had planned, and George got so terrible that Blake almost hit him. I got them to stop, but I think George got his way. I hated him from that moment on." In his 2014 memoir Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography, Neil Patrick Harris reportedly called his Purple People Eater costar Dustin Diamond "one of the more unpleasant people in show business." He also reportedly said Dustin would go "out of his way to offend pretty much every person he comes across." On a 2023 episode of her podcast Bitch Sesh, Casey Wilson said that her The Santa Clauses costar Tim Allen was "such a bitch" to work with. She called it the "worst, truly single worst experience [she's] ever had with a costar ever." She said, "[In our scene] I'm supposed to throw things at him. He's coming down the chimney, obviously as Santa. And I am woken up thinking there's an intruder — basically like a home invasion scene...I basically hear him — he goes, 'You gotta tell her to stop stepping on my lines.' The producer turns to me with horror on his face and has to walk one foot to me, and he goes, 'Tim would ask that you stopped stepping on his lines.'" She also alleged Tim was "so fucking rude" to her post-filming and "never made eye contact, never said anything." In 2016, Amy Hill told the AV Club that she didn't like working on The Cat in the Hat because of her costar Mike Myers's behavior. She said, "He had his handlers dress his trailer, and his area was all covered with tenting because he didn't want anybody seeing him. It was so weird. It was just the worst. It was like I was there forever, and my daughter was 2 and a half, and I felt like I was missing her first everything. I was miserable. I just thought it was really rude for him to not take all of us into consideration." She also said, "It was just a horrible, nightmarish experience. I don't think he got to know anybody. He'd just be with his people and walk away. People would come, and then he'd stand there. There was a guy who held his chocolates in a little Tupperware. Whenever he needed chocolate, he'd come running over and give him a chocolate. That's what divas are like, I guess. Or people who need therapy." Richard Gere originally played Chico in The Lords of Flatbush, but he had a lot of tension with lead actor Sylvester Stallone that led to his firing. In a Q&A, Slyvester said, "We never hit it off. He would strut around in his oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the round table. One day, during an improv, he grabbed me (we were simulating a fight scene) and got a little carried away. I told him in a gentle fashion to lighten up, but he was completely in character and impossible to deal with." "Then, we were rehearsing at Coney Island, and it was lunchtime, so we decided to take a break, and the only place that was warm was in the backseat of a Toyota. I was eating a hotdog, and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminum wrapper. I said, 'That thing is going to drip all over the place.' He said, 'Don't worry about it.' I said, 'If it gets on my pants, you're gonna know about it.' He proceeds to bite into the chicken, and a small, greasy river of mustard lands on my thigh. I elbowed him in the side of the head and basically pushed him out of the car. The director had to make a choice: one of us had to go, one of us had to stay. Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me. He even thinks I'm the individual responsible for the gerbil rumor. Not true…but that's the rumor," he said. In 1987, Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro costarred in Angel Heart. Then, in 2019, Mickey reportedly told the Italian show Non è la D'Urso that they didn't get along on set. He said that he used to look up to Robert, but then the other actor told him, "I think it's better if we don't talk." Mickey said, "Now I don't look up to him no more; I look through him. I came up from the shit. He doesn't know that life. I lived that fucking life, so every time I look him in the face, I look right through his asshole." Mickey also alleged that Robert prevented him from being cast in The Irishman. He said, "Marty Scorsese wanted to meet me for a movie with Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro. The casting person told my manager that Robert De Niro said he refused to work with me in a movie." However, in a statement, Stan Rosenfield, Robert's representative, said, "According to The Irishman producers, Jane Rosenthal and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, and casting director Ellen Lewis, Mickey Rourke was never asked to be in The Irishman nor was he ever even thought of, discussed or considered to be in the movie." Then, in a since-deleted Instagram post from 2020, Mickey reportedly said, "Hey Robert De Niro, that's right i am talking to you, you big fucking crybaby. A friend of mine just recently told me that a few months back you're quoted as saying to newspapers 'Mickey Rourke's a liar he talks all kind of shit.' Listen Guy in the movies, you're the 1st person that ever called me a liar and it was in a newspaper. Let me tell you something, you punk ass, when i see you i swear to God on my Grandmother, on my brother and all my dogs, i gonna embarrass you severally 100%. Mickey Rourke, as God is my witness." And finally, on the 2024 debut episode of their podcast Call It What It Is, Grey's Anatomy costars Jessica Capshaw and Camilla Luddington admitted that they were far from friends at first. Jessica said, "I did not like you. I did not, not like you. When I first met you, I had just had a baby and was coming back to work, and I was feeling very insecure about pretty much everything. I might have shown up to set, and people were atwitter about some beautiful new woman coming to the show. I think these things can happen where all of a sudden I was sitting across from this beautiful young woman and not feeling myself, and I was like, 'Mm, I don't know that I'm going to like her.'" Camila said, "I realized kind of quickly that you didn't like me. Let's call it the burger truck incident of 2012. There was a lovely burger truck, and I snapped a picture of the truck and was like, 'I'm gonna post it on Twitter, and tag Shonda [Rhimes] and say thank you for the burger truck,' which was very polite. Um, someone wasn't a fan of it..[In the picture] you were eating a burger like everyone else. And you were like, 'You need to ask me before you post.' And I was horrified because I'm new and terrified, and this is Jessica Capshaw. And I was like, 'Okay, she full-on hates me because burgergate happened, and the vibes were not good.'" However, there's a happy ending! They ended up becoming friends when they invited a bunch of people to get sushi, and everyone but the two of them canceled. Jessica said, "We really did become friends immediately."
Fast Company
22-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
There's a way to design better, together
In an age where remote work has become the default for many creative teams and AI is adding more collaborators and iterations into the mix, the design process is increasingly being tested. Tools are abundant, yet collaboration often feels more fragmented than fluid. To understand how we can build better, together, I talked with Saad Rajan and Vivek Haligeri Veerana, cofounders of the design platform Naya. Their collaborative work won one of 75 Gold Awards—the highest honor in the iF DESIGN AWARD 2023, and another collaborative Naya project won an iF DESIGN AWARD 2024. Their unique insights into the creative process, the importance of iteration and feedback, and tips for how to navigate digital overload while pursuing great design can benefit us all. Q: You both come from deeply technical, as well as creative backgrounds. What first made you realize the design process was broken? We spent years in product development—everything from custom aircraft to architectural structures—and constantly ran into the same issue. The most innovative or creative ideas weren't surviving. They'd get lost in folders or buried in inboxes. Some ideas slowly fade away over rounds of revisions. Others get diminished through ineffective workflows. That friction compounded when working across teams, tools, and locations. When we got to Harvard's Graduate School of Design for a Master's in Design Engineering, we dug in even deeper. We realized that what leads to great design—iteration, collaboration, and connecting the dots—is exactly where current systems struggle, especially in remote environments. Q: What's changed most about design work in the past five years? Design has become more distributed due to remote work. That shift opened up incredible potential—but also introduced chaos. AI adds in yet another layer of complexity: There are more assets and stakeholders, which leads to more feedback. Iteration happens across dozens of platforms. Feedback is scattered across Miro boards, Google Docs, Dropbox, Slack, email, and text. Everyone's working hard, but not necessarily together. And because remote teams are less likely to share rough drafts, you lose those hallway conversations where someone glances at a colleague's screen and offers a useful edit or great addition to an existing idea. Without shared context, people hesitate to jump in. Q: That makes iteration and collaboration much harder. How do you define great design today? It starts with embracing the messy middle. Iteration isn't just about rework—it's where creativity lives. We believe great design comes from doing, undoing, and redoing. However, that only works if you can more easily track and celebrate progress. Feedback is a huge part of this process—in fact, it's everything. The more voices, the better the outcome. That could be your engineer, your end user, someone from the marketing team, or an AI agent. But for that to work, feedback must be centralized. It also needs to be timely and visible to everyone. Design is complex, and it nearly always benefits from transparency and strategic collaboration. Q: So how does Naya address this problem? We built Naya to be the connective tissue of modern design. It's a digital studio that brings together over 100 file types—including Figma files, PDFs, videos, 3D models, and more—into a single, searchable space. You can see every version, comment, and decision in context, so it's easy to understand where an idea is heading. We also use AI to reduce the noise. It helps summarize feedback, suggest solutions, prevent rework, and even automate some of the work you don't want to do. But we're not replacing creativity or designers—we're enhancing it by surfacing insights from your own process. Sustainability isn't just about the end product. It's also about cocreation, equity, and reducing wastes—of both materials and time—along the way. Wasted time, duplicated effort, lost knowledge, and missed connections are all barriers. But when you iterate well, gather diverse input, keep track of your decisions, and work collaboratively, you're not just moving faster. You're designing more thoughtfully. Remote work isn't going away, and the number of design tools are multiplying. The question is whether our systems and habits are evolving to support the depth and inclusivity that good design requires. We believe they can—and must. And our users agree, from multinational corporations like Google and Adidas, to large design firms like MillerKnoll and IDEO, alongside boutique brands around the world. Q: Final thought—what's the one thing you hope teams take away from your work at Naya? We want people to understand that great design is possible—even with a primarily remote workforce and increase of AI tools—if we rethink how we work together and optimize for the digital age.
L'Orient-Le Jour
22-07-2025
- Business
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Naya raises $195 million to expand Lebanese food chain across the US
"New York had never seen a Lebanese restaurant like Naya," the New York Times wrote back in 2008, two weeks after Naya first opened. Seventeen years later, the Lebanese restaurant chain founded by entrepreneur Hady Kfoury now has more than 30 locations across the it isn't slowing down. Having just raised $195 million through the Trispan fund — of which Lebanese Fady Michel Abouchalache is a founder and director — Naya is planning to have 200 locations running by which has invested in eight projects and startups, has already helped five of them surpass the $1 billion mark in valuation, revenue, or assets under their management, and taken two of them public. Alongside its partners, Trispan also manages about fifteen restaurant chains and some 400 locations. More from the diaspora From Lebanon to...
The Review Geek
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Untamed (2025) – Episode 6 Recap, Review & Ending Explained
All Trails Lead Here Episode 6 of Untamed Season 1 starts with Shane hunting an injured Kyle throughout the woods. Kyle tries to treat his wounds as he keeps going. Back at his house, Naya drops by to check on him. She keeps calling him but gets the voicemail every time. Does Shane kill Kyle? Their little hunting game goes on for hours. Kyle keeps moving, but by nightfall, he has lost too much blood. Shane corners him and is about to kill him. Luckily, Naya shows up just in time to save Kyle and kill Shane. Kyle is rushed to the hospital, where he is treated and makes a quick recovery. He thanks Naya for saving his life, and she thanks him for teaching her about the woods. By the looks of it, Naya is planning to hang around permanently. What happened to Sean Sanderson? After getting back home, Jill comes clean to Scott about what happened to Sean. As we suspected, Sean was the pervert who killed Caleb. Thanks to Shane's motion cameras in the park, Kyle and Jill found out what Sean did. Kyle wanted to collect more evidence and bring Sean in. Unfortunately, Jill didn't want to endure the long legal procedure for justice. She went behind Kyle's back and paid Shane to blackmail, lure, and kill Sean. After confessing to Scott, Jill visits Kyle at the hospital and promises she will be okay. She begs him to promise the same, but he can't. He still sees and talks to Caleb and doesn't want to let go. After his discharge, Kyle agrees to sign whatever papers Esther needs to prove her wrongful death liability case. What happens to Lucy's case? Even after Shane's death, Kyle continues to blame himself for her death. He tries to seek answers to what life she led before her death. He allows the chief to give Lucy a native burial. With no job at the park anymore, Kyle leaves for Nevada to follow a lead. Souter tries to discourage him from pursuing the case, but Kyle insists. In Nevada, he finds out that Lucy lived with the Gibbs family. The family took advantage of many kids by hiding behind a religious mask. Kyle learns that Lucy/ Grace went through a lot in that foster home. She always believed her cop father would come to save her. When he didn't, Lucy ran away and returned to the woods. Hearing this, Kyle puts the pieces together and calls Souter. They meet by the lake, and Souter comes clean about his sins. Lucy was his daughter, but he kidnapped and left her with the Gibbs family. He thought Lucy would be safer there than with her stepfather, Roger. After Lucy returned, she started blackmailing Souter. Ultimately, he killed her to 'protect' his family and marriage. Kyle refuses to help Souter cover up the crimes. To escape his punishment, Souter kills himself. How does Untamed end? Kyle finally says goodbye to Caleb and chooses to leave. He leaves his horse and Caleb's toys to Naya. The chief is proud to see Kyle finally try to move on. The Episode Review What a shocking twist! All this time, Souter knew Lucy was his child and said nothing. He watched the medical examiner perform the post-mortem on the daughter he killed and didn't even bat an eye! What made it worse was that he was too much of a coward to face the consequences of his actions. How dare he try to justify his actions? Where was his love and loyalty to his family when he cheated and sired Lucy? The pain that Lucy went through could have been entirely avoided if he had chosen to own his mistakes and do the right thing. The more I think about it, the more infuriating it is. With the case closed, Kyle can finally get some closure. He has been haunted by what happened to Caleb for many years. While we don't agree with Jill's action, we understand. Sean actively sought out a child and then killed him. Any parent would have gone temporarily insane after seeing what Caleb went through at Sean's hands. Ain't it ironic that Jill killed to avenge her child while Souter killed his child to hide his shame! Overall, Untamed is a gripping mystery show. It is a worthwhile slow burn with amazing cinematography. The acting is top-notch, and viewers quickly get immersed in the characters' pain and struggles. If you are looking for a show to binge-watch this weekend, Untamed is a good choice.
Al Etihad
16-07-2025
- Health
- Al Etihad
Naya's heartwarming success story at age eight
16 July 2025 14:20 ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD) SEHA's Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, a subsidiary of PureHealth, shares the inspiring journey of Naya, an eight-year-old girl born with Down syndrome, whose developmental progress serves as a beacon of remarkable growth is a testament to the outstanding, high-quality interventions provided by the Rehabilitation Centre at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City. All professionals involved in her care have delivered exceptional support, underpinned by expert leadership and consistent, compassionate has made exceptional progress in her speech therapy. Once communicating with fragmented and underdeveloped language, she can now express her thoughts and needs in complete sentences—and is working towards fluency in three languages. Najla, Speech Therapist at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, shared her pride in Naya's accomplishments, noting that her journey demonstrates what is possible with dedication and tailored occupational therapy, Naya has attained full independence. Tasks that once posed significant challenges are now performed with ease, enabling her to participate in daily life like any other child. Anas, Occupational Therapist, described her transformation as truly rewarding and a reflection of Naya's determination and in physical therapy, Naya has shown immense improvement in her balance and posture, overcoming a history of toe-walking. Karim, Physical Therapist, praised her as a true warrior for her resilience and Naya thrives at Al Bateen Academy – Aldar, actively participating in school life without the support of a shadow teacher. Her seamless integration into the classroom reflects her hard work, the strength of the interventions she received, and the unwavering support surrounding family has been a vital source of strength throughout her journey. Her mother, Mrs Lina, expressed joy at witnessing Naya's growth, crediting her achievements to determination and the exceptional care provided by the Rehabilitation Centre. Her father added that Naya's story proves that with faith, hard work, and the right support, anything is possible. The family conveyed heartfelt gratitude to the entire SKMC story is a powerful reminder of the extraordinary potential that can be unlocked when awareness, expertise, and compassion come together. Her ongoing journey of resilience and success serves as an inspiration to families across the UAE and beyond. Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, part of SEHA, is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). This recognition, in addition to its SEHA accreditation, reinforces the facility's commitment to delivering exceptional, patient-centred care across both acute and rehabilitative services, in alignment with the highest international standards.
