Kenza Fourati

At 36 years old, Kenza Fourati has this physical status:

Kenza Fourati (Arabic: ) is a Tunisian model.

Early life and education

Fourati was born in Lille, northern France, on May 13, 1987. When she was two months old, she and her family moved to Tunisia, growing up in the coastal town of La Marsa.

Dora Bouchoucha, Fourati's mother, is a film director, and her father, Kamel Fourati, is a radiologist. Mohamed Fourati, her paternal grandfather, was a Tunisian heart transplant surgeon and a pioneer of heart transplant surgery. Michèle Roly, a French immigrant and a native of Lille, is the subject of her paternal grandmother. Maleke, a PhD candidate in Development Economics at the UNSW Business School in Australia, is a younger sister of Fourati.

Fourati began modeling after graduating from a French high school in Tunisia. She then moved to Paris to study at the Paris-Sorbonne University. In 2008, Fourati earned a Bachelor of Literature and Fine Arts. She then moved to London to study filmmaking at Kingston University, London, where she continued modelling Fourati obtained a master's degree in Film/Cinema/Video Studies in 2010. Fourati has said that she had aspired to become a director since she was a child. Since 2011, she has been attending the New York Film Academy to study acting.

Fourati speaks Arabic, English, French, and "a little bit of Italian." She holds dual citizenship in France and Tunisia.

Personal life

Fourati has lived in Tunisia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She now resides in New York.

Fourati compared her life in France to that in the United States in a 2011 interview:

Fourati was asked about her experience in France: "I'm an optimist."

Fourati dated R & B singer Ryan Leslie and appeared on several of Ryan's music videos.

Fourati married Ayman Mohyeldin, a television reporter for NBC News, in a personal ceremony in his home state of Georgia on April 26, 2016. She posted snapshots from her wedding day on social media. For the wedding in Marietta, Georgia, the fourati wore an ivory wedding burnous over an ivory Balenciaga mini-dress. Fourati wore a custom Houghton "Moss" Gown in photographs taken in Savannah, Georgia.

In a "Vogue Arabia" interview, Fourati revealed that she was expecting her first child with husband Ayman Mohyeldin in early 2017. Dora Fourati Mohyeldin, their daughter, was born in New York on March 12, 2017.

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Career and political activism

In 2002, Fourati finished in third place in the Elite Model Look competition at the age of 15 and signed with Elite Model Management. She has appeared in numerous international magazines, such as Vogue Paris, Elle, Marie Claire, L'officiel Voyage, Grazia, and GQ. Fourati has walked the runway for major fashion houses, including Armani, Céline, Gianfranco Ferré, Jean Paul Gaultier, Stella McCartney, Tommy Hilfiger, Valentino and Vivienne Westwood.

In 2005, she appeared in the French film Frankie alongside Diane Kruger. In October 2010, with Tunisian actor Dhaffer L'Abidine, Fourati co-hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the Carthage Film Festival.

In recent years she has been involved in advocacy with the Model Mafia and Model Alliance.

In November 2013, Fourati launched her own women's fashion line in Tunis, Tunisia. Her clothing line included a range of printed T-shirts; long, sheer dresses; and oversized, long-sleeved tops. The fashion line was designed in New York by Fourati who was assisted by a pattern-maker; and manufactured in her home country of Tunisia. The By Kenz blog is no longer available and the Facebook Fanpage has not been updated since March, 2014. She has since launched a shoe company, Osay, with Simone Carrica.

Fourati appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2011. In an interview with Global Grind, Fourati said,

Following the Tunisian Revolution, Fourati became an advocate for artistic expression in Tunisia:

As the first Arab Muslim model to be featured in Sports Illustrated, she raised debates in Tunisian society and abroad about what it means to be Muslim and about variety within the religion.

In August 2011, during the Muslim month of Ramadhan, Fourati appeared in a bikini and body paint on the cover of Tunivisions, which created controversy. In a 2012 interview, Fourati was critical of the magazine, saying:

Though she was living abroad at the time, Fourati participated in Tunisia's four week Jasmine Revolution that toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The revolution which began on 18 December 2010, culminated with the flight of Ben Ali and his family on 14 January 2011. Fourati was critical of the position the French government took, saying:

Of her involvement, Fourati said:

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