Ahmed El Keiy

Ahmed El Keiy was born in Cairo but attended school in Paris. He passed the international baccalauréat at the École Jeannine Manuel (school) in 1985, and went on to study law at the Panthéon-Assas University, emerging with a higher level degree ("diplômé de troisième cycle") in 1993.[1] He then embarked on a legal career, joining an international law firm.

He is passionate about theatre and cinema. In 1995 he received an ADAMI "young talent" award at the Cannes International Film Festival.[4] He took the main role in "La Corde" ("The Rope"), a short film that won the jury prize at film festivals in Bastia and, outside France, Larissa. He also appeared as an actor in "Imentet, un passage par l'Egypte" in a production at the Paris Odéon Theatre. He has toured with theatre companies inside and outside France, and taken parts in plays by Chekhov, Goldoni, Beckett, Crommelynck and others.[4]

It was at this point that he also began writing for various newspapers and magazines, notably Le Nouvel Observateur (Paris) and Al-Ahram (Cairo).[4] Along with French and Arabic, he is fluent in English, appearing as an expert commentator on anglophone television news programmes from the BBC and CNN.[1]

More recently has built a career as a radio journalist, first appearing on France Ô in 2005. There he has presented the daily talk show "Toutes les France" since 2007.[5] The programme covers the main national and international news themes of the day, notably in respect of politics. culture, economics and social themes: during 2011/12 it was converted from a daily to a weekly format. He has also been a regular presenter of phone-in programmes on Beur FM of which he became head of news and chief editor in 2005. He was appointed in 2012 Deputy Director of the Arab language content of the Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France ( France 24 news channel and International French Radio) and was also the Head of News of the French , English and Arab speaking channels of France 24.[3]