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“Nothing should change your soul.”
Introduction
Alek Wek is a Sudanese supermodel who appeared on the catwalks at the age of 18, in 1995. She is from the Dinka ethnic group in the Sudan, but in 1991 her family fled to Britain to escape the civil war between the Muslim North and the Christian South of the Sudan. Wow, another story about a third-world beauty escaping civil war and rising to the top of the fashion world. Blah blah blah.
Life story
Alek was born the seventh of nine children in Wau in Southern Sudan, in 1977. When she was preparing to emigrate from Sudan, she and her mother picked the date April 16, which occurs in the rainy season during which she was born. Fortunately, she was not named Monsoon, or else she might have gone into professional wrestling.
In 1995, Alek was discovered at an outdoor market in Crystal Palace, south London, by a Models 1 scout. He had gone out for some produce, but he came back with a model. She first got attention with the help of the music video for Tina Turner’s “Goldeneye” in 1995 and from there made it into the world of fashion as one of its top models, without having to participate in that reality show, thank goodness.
Amongst other things she has done ads for Issey Miyake, Moschino, Victoria’s Secret, and has walked the runways for John Galliano, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, etc. She made her acting debut in the Four Feathers as Sudanese princess Aquol, and went head to head with none other than Heath Ledger and Wes Bentley. Bentley would go on to go head to head with Nicholas Cage in Ghostrider, but it was not as hot.
In 2007, she released an autobiography entitled Alek, documenting her journey from a childhood of poverty in Sudan to the catwalks of Europe. Due to the writer’s strike, it will be a long time before Hollywood can bastardize the book into a comedic screenplay, casting plus-size comedienne Mo’nique in the title role.
Alek Wek on the Web
Click on Edit to add links to this chick!
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