Khadra Sufi

Khadra Sufi’s background

Khadra Sufi is the daughter of a Somali diplomat and spent the first years of her life in Yemen, Zambia and Saudi Arabia. In 1983, the diplomatic family moved to East Berlin. At the age of eight she returned to Somalia with her parents and siblings. The family was persecuted by insurgents during the Somali civil war and in 1990 had to flee to Egypt via Kenya. A year later they came to the reunified Germany, where they lived in a home for asylum seekers near Bonn. Khadra did not follow her family when they moved to London and stayed in Germany. Here the sixteen-year-old lived at times penniless in a converted garage. She completed her secondary school leaving certificate and received training as a medical assistant, worked and applied for castings.

In 2003, Sufi lived for 43 days on the television show Big Brother (Season 4). She also moderates various web TV formats and events. She worked as a reporter for the Bild (newspaper) in Cologne from 2008 to 2010 and as a live reporter and author for the local time Ruhr of the WDR between 2009 and 2012.

In 2010 her autobiography The Girl Who Was Not Allowed To Cry, which became a bestseller, was published.

Sufi was a guest on programs such as ZDF-Mittagsmagazin (ZDF, March 2010), Menschen der Woche (SWR June 2010), plasberg in person (WDR, July 2012), West ART (WDR, November 2013), Im Dialog (Phoenix, October 2013), inka! (ZDF, September 2013), tough but fair (ARD, September 2013), people at Maischberger (ARD, August 2013) and Markus Lanz. (ZDF, January 2018).

Sufi has been an ambassador for UN refugee aid since 2012. In 2013 she supported the Cologne youth musical ensemble YoungStage. Together with the art agent Jenny Falckenberg, Sufi took over the patronage for the Hamburg association Kitz 4 Kids in 2018.

Today Khadra Sufi lives in Hamburg and is one of the most successful brand ambassadors at QVC in Düsseldorf – including her own clothing line. In addition, she regularly stands in front of the camera for Lyoness TV in Graz and shows her talent for inspiring viewers for interesting products as well as her journalistic know-how. This paved the way for the multilingual power woman in the event area.

From product presentations, interviews and gala moderation to panel discussions – Khadra Sufi is guaranteed to be one of the most spontaneous, funniest and at the same time most serious moderator.