In 2012, after getting his first lead role in My Brother the Devil, Elsayed fell in love with acting and knew he wanted to be an actor for the rest of his life. For his role as Mo in My Brother the Devil he was nominated with the Best Newcomer Award at the BFI London Film Festival. He also received an nomination for the ALFS Award as Young British Performer of the Year. After this Elsayed appeared in several TV series, like Casualty or Silent Witness. In 2014, he played a vampire who spoke Arabic in Penny Dreadful. Until then this was the most challenging role for him. In 2016, Elsayed was cast in the BBC Three Doctor Who spin-off Class as Ram Singh. Elsayed's character Ram is a student at Coal Hill Academy, who plays in the school's football team.