Jehane Noujaim was born on 17 May, 1974 in Cairo, Egypt where she grew up and began her career as a photographer and filmmaker. She moved to Boston in 1990, where she attended Milton Academy, matriculated to Harvard University in 1992 and graduated magna cum laude in Visual Arts and Philosophy in 1996. The same year, before her graduation, Noujaim was awarded the Gardiner fellowship under which she directed Mokattam, an Arabic film about a garbage collecting village near Cairo in Egypt. She joined the MTV News and Documentary division as a producer for the documentary series, UNfiltered. Noujaim left her producing job at MTV to produce and direct Startup.com in association with Pennebaker Hegedus Films. The feature length, highly acclaimed documentary has won numerous distinguished awards including the DGA and IDA Awards for best documentary. She has since worked in both the Middle East and the US as a director and cinematographer on various documentaries including Born Rich (Jamie Johnson), Only the Strong Survive (Miramax Films), and Down from the Mountain (Coen Brothers). In 2004, she directed the feature length, highly acclaimed film Control Room, a documentary about US Central Command and its relations with Al Jazeera and other news organizations that covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
After winning the TED Prize Jehane used her wish to organize Pangea day, a live videoconference that took place in New York City, Rio de Janeiro, London, Dharamsala, Cairo, Jerusalem, and Kigali on May 10, 2008. The show was internationally broadcasted over 4-hours through internet, television and mobile phones. It featured films, speakers, and music.
