Muna Wassef is a Syrian stage, film and television actress. She was born on 1 February 1942, as Muna Mustafa Wassef Jelmran. She is also a United Nations Goodwill ambassador. Wassef is an icon in the Arab world and the Middle East. Wassef had become the highest-paid actress in the Arab World since the end of the 1970s until the year 2000; now she is one of the highest-paid actresses. Wassef is the first Syrian woman to receive the Syrian Order of Merit-Excellent Degree in 2009.