Netsanet Mekonnen

Mekonnen was born in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, to a Christian mother and a half-Jewish father.[1] She is one of six siblings.[2] When she was two, her mother left to the United States, and her father subsequently immigrated to Israel, when she was about four years old.[3] In 1994, at the age of six, she and her sister Bitania joined him, and converted to Judaism.[1]

Her father was very successful in Ethiopia, and well-regarded professionally. This was far from the case in Israel. After three years as a single parent, he, too, left for the United States, hoping to find his wife there, and to make a new life as a journalist.[4] Mekonnen, now in the third grade, found herself in a "pnimia" – a type of boarding school for at-risk youth, or those from broken families.[5]

Mekonnen next saw her mother when she was 18.[4] Growing up without family, as an immigrant, and as a black-skinned minority, made Mekonnen question her identity – an issue that became central to her as an artist.[6] She is outspoken about the racism in Israeli society and how it affects her and other actors of Ethiopian origin, and has been supportive of the Ethiopian-Israeli protest movement for social justice.[6]

While serving in the Israel Defense Forces, in the military theater troupe, Mekonnen produced and performed in an autobiographical play called "Netsanet".[3] The play continued to run for over a decade. The meaning of her name in Amharic is "freedom".[1] After the army, Mekonnen studied dance at the Nadine Bommer Academy and at the Broadway Dance Center in New York, specializing in ballroom and latin dance. She completed her Bachelor's degree in theater at the Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts.[7]

Mekonnen is a polyglot: In addition to Hebrew and Amharic, she speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese.[8] She studied at the College of Nutrition, and is a frutarian.[9]

• 2011 – America-Israel Cultural Foundation Award
• 2012 – First place in the Ohala Halevy singing competition

• Netsanet Mekonnen at IMDb
• Netsanet Mekonnen on Facebook