He is known as Rouiched (as in little Rachid, big Rachid being great Rachid Ksentini) but his real name was Ahmed Ayad. He was born in 1921 in El Casbah, Algiers. He left school at the age of 13 and started working. He sold vegetables and fruits among other jobs.
Mahmoud Stambouli discovered him and helped him get a small role in Abdelhamid Ababsa‘s “estardje3 ya assi” play, and the public liked one scene where Rouiched punched the judge.
Then he joined Mahieddine Bachtarzi‘s troupe in 1942 and played with them until the French colonizer closed the house of opera of Algiers. And Rouiched moved to acting in skits and radio shows together with Mohamed Touri (who wrote the first Algerian anthem before Qassaman) and Sid Ali Fernandel. It was then that Hassan Niya, Hassan Terro and Hassan Taxi appeared for the first time. And because of his nationalist stance, the French jailed him in Serkadji from 1957 to 1959
Rouiched joined the Algerian National Theatre (TNA) after Algeria’s independence and acted in many famous movies such as Hassan Terro, Hassan Niya, The white shadow, The escape of Hassan Terro, opium and the stick, etc. He also participated in many theatre plays together with other famous actors such as Keltoum, Sid Ali Kouirat, Nouria, Sissani, etc.
Rouiched wrote his memoirs in 1993 and died in Algiers on January 28th, 1999.
