015 – Nathan Araya
Nathan Araya is a filmmaker, TV personality, producer, community leader and unshakable optimist dedicated to improving the lives of people around the world.
014 – Mesfin Getaneh (Part 2)
Mesfin Getaneh is the cofounder of MeSh Cart, an online Ethiopian shopping site specializing in high quality Ethiopian Foods, Beverages, Books, Movies, and Clothing. Mesfin is also the President, Executive Director and Co-founder of Your Ethiopian Professionals (YEP) – formerly known as Young Ethiopian Professionals. YEP is a community of diverse professionals who are striving for growth, excellence and success in their professional and social lives. Recognizing the lack of effective networking platforms for young diverse Ethiopian professionals in the DMV area.
014 – Mesfin Getaneh (Part 1)
Mesfin Getaneh is the cofounder of MeSh Cart, an online Ethiopian shopping site specializing in high quality Ethiopian Foods, Beverages, Books, Movies, and Clothing. Mesfin is also the President, Executive Director and Co-founder of Your Ethiopian Professionals (YEP) – formerly known as Young Ethiopian Professionals. YEP is a community of diverse professionals who are striving for growth, excellence and success in their professional and social lives. Recognizing the lack of effective networking platforms for young diverse Ethiopian professionals in the DMV area.
013 – Antu Yacob
Antu Yacob is Ethiopian a professional actress, playwright, and philanthropist.
012 – Jomo Tariku
Jomo Tariku was born in Kenya to Ethiopian parents. As a young boy growing up in Ethiopia, he was always drawn to the eclectic art pieces, souvenirs and furniture pieces his father collected while traveling across Africa. That combined with volunteering at a local woodshop in Addis, catapulted his interest in furniture design. Jomo graduated from The University of Kansas with a degree in Industrial Design.
011 – Hamere Demissie
Hamere Demissie, Founder and CEO of Actuel Urban Living is a designer with a passion for contemporary art forms particularly furniture, interiors, fashion and visual arts. She has a dichotomous professional background going back and forth between her two lifelong passions of design and development economics – sometimes managing to miraculously combine her two passions in a single job. Hamere has worked as a designer of apparel, furniture and home furnishings and jewelry with various companies in the US, Bangladesh and Ethiopia.
010 – Azariah Mengistu
Azariah Mengistu is the co-founder of Enzi, a premium leather footwear brand based in Ethiopia.
Find out more about Azariah and about Enzi:
Website: www.enzifootwear.com
Twitter: EnziFootwear
Facebook: ENZI
009 – Saron Yitbarek
Saron Yitbarek is the founder of CodeNewbie, the most supportive community of programmers and people learning to code. She’s also host of the weekly CodeNewbie Podcast and a program manager at Microsoft for Tech Jobs Academy, a technical training program for talented New Yorkers ready to launch their tech career.
You can follow her @saronyitbarek.
008 – Maaza Mengiste
Maaza Mengiste is a novelist and essayist. Her debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, was selected by the Guardian as one of the 10 best contemporary African books and named one of the best books of 2010 by Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe and other publications.
007 – Solomon Kassa
Solomon Kassa is a Senior Technology Consultant at Deloitte, a Fortune 500 global consulting firm. Before joining the management consulting world, Solomon worked as a software developer at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is also the producer and host of the Amharic TV Show “TechTalk with Solomon” that airs on Ethiopia Broadcasting Services (EBS), where he explores the topic of Science and Technology and interviews several highly accomplished Ethiopian-Americans in the field of science and technology. Solomon just recieved the 2016 (SEED) Society of Ethiopians Established in the Diaspora award in recognition for his extraordinary commitment to produce a science and technology show and hosting it for millions in his native language Amharic. Solomon is working on an all-amharic, first of it’s kind book based on the topic of Science and Technology.
006 – Messay Getahun
Messay is a community leader, script writer and film maker. He has organized and produced many local, national and international events over the past 15 years including a televised event called A.R.O.C. (Above Reproach On Campus), which featured artist such as Lecrae, The Afters, Lifehouse and many others.
005 – Dr Tewodros Mesele Gedebou (Part 2)
Dr Tewodros Mesele Gedebou is a Plastic Reconstructive Surgeon. His schooling is impressive and extensive. He received his bachelors in Medical Anthropology and Biology from Stanford University in California. He attended Medical School at the University of California at San Francisco, after which he went on to do his residency in General surgery at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Dr Tewodros Mesele went on to do Plastic and Reconstructive surgery at University of Illinois in Chicago as well as a one year fellowship in Reconstructive Microsurgery at Chang Gung University in Taiwan.
004 – Dr Tewodros Mesele Gedebou (Part 1)
Dr Tewodros Mesele Gedebou is a Plastic Reconstructive Surgeon. His schooling is impressive and extensive. He received his bachelors in Medical Anthropology and Biology from Stanford University in California. He attended Medical School at the University of California at San Francisco, after which he went on to do his residency in General surgery at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Dr Tewodros Mesele went on to do Plastic and Reconstructive surgery at University of Illinois in Chicago as well as a one year fellowship in Reconstructive Microsurgery at Chang Gung University in Taiwan.
003 – Hanna Kebbede
Hanna M. Kebbede is an entrepreneur, artist, and founder of the Emahoy Tsege Mariam Music Foundation. Hanna has worked as a consultant in capacity building for international development projects and worked in more than a dozen countries in Africa, Europe and Asia. She has worked in capacity building sector on projects for the UN, where she structured and designed entrepreneur training projects in Bulgaria, civil service workforce training in East Timor, and global surface transport and port operations logistics training for WFP in Rome.
002 – Wondwossen Dikran
Wondwossen is co-founder of Activator Pictures (www.activatorpictures.com), a multi-platform production company based in Los Angeles, California. He is a prolific Producer/Writer/Director with over 14 years of experience in film, TV, and digital media.
Yetnebersh Nigussie, The Blind Woman Who Can Lead
An amazing & very inspiring story… Blinded at the age of 5, Yetnebersh Nigussie hasn’t let her disability prevent her from being an amazing and insightful leader in Ethiopia, championing the inclusion of people with disabilities through the Ethiopian Center for Disabilities and Development. CCL Ethiopia
Teaser: Documentary On The New Skating Culture In Ethiopia
This is a teaser of an upcoming documentary on the Skateboarding movement in Ethiopia.
Find out more about Ethiopia Skate here.
Music by Leonard Schellenberg feat. Nuwella Love.
Images courtesy of Daniel Reiter.
Meet the Dibabas: The Fastest Family on the Planet
From left: Sisters Ejegayehu, Genzebe, and Tirunesh Dibaba, all wearing Nike, and their cousin Derartu Tulu, in Adidas. Genzebe is expected to win gold in Rio, while the other three are already Olympic medalists.
Photographed by Ron Haviv, Vogue, April 2016
001 – David Mesfin
David Mesfin was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. At a young age he was exposed to advertising while working along side his father at Neon Addis Advertising. He immigrated to the US at the age of 14 and eventually graduated with a BFA degree in Visual Communication from California State University, Long Beach, he focused on national brand campaigns at several advertising agencies.
Film on Ethiopian Nun Composer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou
A biopic depicting the life of Emahoy a survivor of Italian occupied Ethiopia, who at 85 became world famous with Ethiopiques 21.