Mahalet Dejene was born in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. She moved to Baltimore, MD when she was 6 years old. She was active in the performing arts from a young age but pursued a short career in television news before switching gears into acting. She attended New York University on a scholarship for Broadcast Journalism and Spanish. While there, she studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina to learn Spanish. She became fluent in the language. Show less «