Esti Mamo

Esti Mamo (Ge'ez: እስቲ ማሞ "istī māmmō", Hebrew: אסתי ממו) (born 1983) is a leading Israeli fashion model [http://www.atlantajewish.com/content/032006/estimamo.html] and budding actress.

Childhood

Of Ethiopian Jewish descent, Esti Mamo was born in 1983 in Yechila, in eastern Ethiopia. She is a member of the Beta Israel community. [http://www.estimamo.com/Index.asp?CategoryID=68&ArticleID=195]

At the age of 9 she and her family immigrated from famine and poverty striken Ethiopia to Israel, where the family was moved to the slum district of a southern Israeli city. A younger brother committed suicide in 2004. [http://www.jvibe.com/popculture/not_just_pretty.shtml]

As a teenager Mamo founded a dance group called "Mango", which has performed professionally in leading clubs in Israel and represented Israel in London's Notting Hill Carnival.

Modeling & acting

Discovered at 15, she resisted overtures from modeling agents until she finished school, but at 18 Mamo started a modeling career. [http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=4637&TM=3302.692] Since then, she's been featured on the covers of Israeli magazines, as well as on the pages of high fashion publications ELLE and Vogue.

From 2004 on, Mamo has worked in Europe campaigning for several international brands. She also studied acting in Israel, and has acted in various Israeli TV productions.

Miscellaneous

She was voted the 97th sexiest women of 2005 in an online survey reported in the December edition of men's magazine "Blazer". [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1134309576532&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull]