Myriam Francois Cerrah

Myriam Francois Cerrah is a journalist, filmmaker, and writer known for her insightful commentary on current affairs, particularly concerning France and the Middle East. After portraying Margaret Dashwood in the acclaimed 1995 film Sense and Sensibility, Myriam Francois Cerrah established a multifaceted career as a journalist, filmmaker, and writer. Her early acting credits also include appearances in Paws (1997) and New Year’s Day (2000). Transitioning into media and academia, she completed her BA in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University and an MA in Arab Studies, specializing in Middle East politics, from Georgetown University.

(2019). Her documentary City of Refuge (2019) was broadcast on both BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service. Also in 2019, she was appointed as a judge for the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction books. Myriam’s insightful commentary is regularly featured in major publications including The Guardian, TIME, Foreign Policy, and The Telegraph.

She served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Policy from 2019 to 2020 and a Research Associate at SOAS University of London, focusing on issues related to British Muslims and Islamophobia. In 2021, she founded MPWR Productions, specializing in documentaries that amplify minority voices. Most recently, in 2022, Myriam presented the BBC World Service audio documentary When Rape Becomes a Crime. The same year, she hosted and produced The Big Picture: France in Focus, a four-part series for Al Jazeera English.

Further expanding her directorial portfolio, she directed Finding Alaa in 2023, followed by Finding Aicha, which was broadcast on BBC’s Our World, BBC Arabic, and CBC in 2023.