Netsanet Mekonnen

Netsanet Zenaneh Mekonnen (; born July 7, 1988) is an Ethiopian-born Israeli film, television and theater actress.

Early life Mekonnen was born in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, to a Christian mother and a half-Jewish father. She is one of six siblings. When she was two, her mother left to the United States, and her father subsequently immigrated to Israel, when she was about four years old. In 1994, at the age of six, she and her sister Bitania joined him, and converted to Judaism. Mekonnen, now in the third grade, found herself in a "pnimia" – a type of boarding school for at-risk youth, or those from broken families.

Mekonnen next saw her mother when she was 18. She is outspoken about the racism in Israeli society and how it affects her and other actors of Ethiopian origin, and has been supportive of the Ethiopian-Israeli protest movement for social justice. She studied at the College of Nutrition, and is a frutarian.

Career

Television

2012 – "תנוחי" 2013 – "שולחן לשישה" (table for six) with Natan Detner and Yuval Scharf 2015 – "Zaguri Imperia" and "Eretz Nehederet" 2016 – "מלאך של אמא" (mother's angel) and North Star

Film

2014 – "Zero Motivation" 2016 – "אשת השגריר" (the ambassador's wife) with Ester Rada and Yehezkel Lazarov 2012 – Lead role in the musical "איש חסיד היה" (a pious man); joint production of Haifa Theatre and Habima Theatre. Directed by Itzik Weingarten. 2013 – "בת המלך" (king's daughter); Haifa Theater. 2018 – Lead role in "Svetlana"; Dimona Theater; written by Mekonnen and Uri Vidislevski.

Teaching Mekonnen teaches acting at the Kibbutzim College, and dance at the E-motion studio.

Awards 2011 – America-Israel Cultural Foundation Award 2012 – First place in the Ohala Halevy singing competition