Marie Nejar

Marie Nejar (20 March 1930 – 11 May 2025), known professionally as Leila Negra was a German singer and actress of African descent. She began her career as a child film actor in the 1940s, became a singer after World War II, and left performing in the late 1950s to become a nurse.

Background Leila Negra was born Marie Nejar in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, on 20 March 1930.

Career Her film career as a performer began as a result of a search instigated by Joseph Goebbels, the German Minister of Propaganda, for black children who could play African natives in various films being made by UFA, which had been taken over by the Nazis in 1933. Nejar first appeared in the 1943 fantasy film Münchhausen, performing as a black servant with a fan. Only 12 years old when the film was shot, she did not realize it was propaganda and was happy to have two weeks off from school and earn some money.