Mahder Assefa

Early life and education

She was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia around shero meda from her mother Rebeka Feyessa and her father Assefa Demelash, and grew up there till the age of 5. In her early age, Assefa moved to a different location which is also called Kera also located in Addis Ababa. She started the Elementary school at Atse Zeray Yacob till she finished her 8th grade then finished her high school at Shemeles Habte, and graduated in 2003 in 1995 Ethiopian calendar. After her high school graduations she started her college career at Admas College, now Admas University College, studying Secretarial Science.

During her childhood, Assefa loved to dance. She was very shy and very polite person that no one even imagine. She and her 5 friends of started dancing at a mini media center when she was in Elementary school hiding from her parents thinking of, if they find out about it they would make her stop from all this because her parents wanted Assefa to pay attention to her school and be successful. This was going on for approximately two years till she starts her high school. After that Assefa and her 4 friends created a dance group called UNIQUE GIRLS.

She loves to listen music and even dreamed about becoming a singer but she realizes that she really doesn’t have the voice and thought of becoming an actor which fits her the best. Mahder also loves to read books, watch movies with friends and travel and discover new places.

The UNIQUE GIRLS have been doing so good and become good at what they do. Then they started getting big stages and got invited to be background dancers with the most famous singers in Ethiopia such as Dawit melesse, Tibebu Workiye, and many others. Once this was going on the UNIQUE GIRLS were broadcasting on live Television shows till one day her mother saw her, and of course the girl’s parents wanted them to stop doing from what they were doing but this girls were unstoppable and kept on doing that till they finished their high school. When it’s time to go to college they all went to different school there they couldn’t get together for practice, and make the team stay, unfortunately the UNIQUE GIRLS stopped from what they have been doing because they all agreed that they should give priority to school.

Three years have passed then Assefa graduated from Admas university college, while in college 6 month before graduation Assefa have been sent to Abesha traditional center by the school and started working there as sales person so that it will be good so that it will be considered as internship to develop her business connections as well as to meet lots of people. After working for about a year she have found another job at the Bole international airport working in a Duty-free shop as a sales person and stayed there for about 4 and half years.

Early work

While Assefa was working as sales person there, she got a phone call from a movie director Eneyew Dechasa. And talked to her about making her first movie "ታስራለች" ("TASRALECH"). At this time Assefa was a bit confused because she has been away from the art area for more than 4 years because she was enjoying her job and kept her busy and almost forgot about all that being in front of camera while she was dancing. It was a big chance for Assefa that came out of nowhere because this can change her life forever. Then Assefa went to discuss this matter with her mother and her cousin who is also an actress and also friend of the director who is Tigist Wasihun. After the discussion with her mother and her cousin Assefa decided to make her first ever movie But only without quitting her job. Then the director agreed and had to test her acting skill and decided that she is the perfect fit for the character he needed. And of course she successfully finished.

Latest Work

Following her first movie Assefa made several movies and still making new once. The movies she made:

After making her third movie ያልተነካ ("YALTENEKA"), one of the most famous actress that Ethiopia have Mulualem Tadesse cast her to be on a television serous show called ሰው ለሰው ("SEW LE SEW") which is a very popular show on every Wednesday night. She has done a lot of TV commercials bill board commercials and also cover on a most popular magazines.

When Mahder became good at what she do, acting, she decided to quit the Sales Person job because for her Acting is something that she was born to do.

Awards

It is not that developed in Ethiopia to give awards for professionals in the fields of Acting. Different groups tried to organize award ceremonies in this art for one year and then disappear. Currently there are a lot films produced in the country and the practice of awarding best performers will be in the future. People needs to know the artists through their films and interviews with the media. Mahder Assefa did many interviews in the last two years.

Since 2012, FM102.1 is working on giving Awards for the Best Actor and Actress of the year in the Film Side. The selection is based on selection of the Film by the listeners and then select the best actor/actress from that film by listener. Listeners were given many accesses to choose their best film and አምራን AMRAN was selected as best film of the year. Artist Mahider Assefa is selected as a Winner Best Actress of The Year 2013 and Samson Tadesse is selected as a Winner Best Actor of The Year 2013.