Mari Malek

Mari Malek, also known by the stage name DJ Stiletto, is a South Sudanese model, DJ, actress and activist.

Biography Malek's family is from the Dinka people. Born in Wau, at the start of the Second Sudanese Civil War in the mid-1980s, her mother, was a nurse and her father was a politician. She has four brothers and sisters but her family is much larger, since father had four wives. Due to the escalation of conflict, her mother took Malek and her sister to Egypt where they obtained refugee status. They left for the United States in 1997, first to Newark in New Jersey, then to San Diego in California. During this period, she faced racism in the modelling industry and was turned away as agencies would state that they "already had a black girl". Malek subsequently posed for campaigns for Vogue, Rolls-Royce and made appearances in Kanye West's Power video and Lady Gaga's Born This Way. She also worked as a disc-jockey, under the pseudonym DJ Stiletto . Her humanitarian work was recognised by the Obama administration.

In 2017, Malek was listed as one of OkayAfrica's 100 Women. Also in 2017, she starred in the film The Nile Hilton Incident, where she played a maid who witnessed an assassination.

Awards

OkayAfrica's 100 Women - 2017

Works

Filmography

2017: The Nile Hilton Incident'' by Tarik Saleh: Salwa, the maid.