Netsanet Mekonnen

Netsanet Mekonnen was born in 1988 in Addis Ababa

Mekonnen was born in Addis Ababa in 1988 to a Christian mother and a father of Jewish descent. Her mother left for the United States when she was a small child, and her father moved to Israel. In 1994 she came to Israel with her sister Bitania and converted to Judaism.

Her father later left for the United States, and she grew up in a boarding school for youth at risk. She met her mother again at 18. She has spoken out about racism in Israeli society and supported the protest movement of Ethiopian Israelis.

During her army service in the IDF theater troupe, she starred in an autobiographical one-woman show named after her. She then studied dance at the Nadine Bommer Academy and at the Broadway Dance Center in New York. She earned a bachelor's degree at the Kibbutzim College.

On stage she played lead roles at Haifa Theatre and Dimona Theater, including in the play Race. On screen she appeared in Zero Motivation, The Ambassador's Wife and Flawless, and in TV shows such as Eretz Nehederet. She teaches acting at the Kibbutzim College and dance at the E-motion studio.