| About Gelila Bekele | |
|---|---|
| Age | 37 Years |
| Birth | September 4, 1986 Ethiopia |
| Gender | Female |
| Children | Aman Tyler Perry |
| Job | Model, Humanitarian, Photographer |
| Partner | Tyler Perry |
Tyler Perry is among the best writers, directors, producers, and actors in Hollywood. Yet it’s his real-life roles as a father and a partner that he is best at. The multi-hyphenate keeps his family life low-key. But Tyler Perry’s beautiful girlfriend and baby mama can’t escape the spotlight. Gelila Bekele, who’s been with Perry for a decade, has many ventures on her plate, too. The true definition of “beauty, inside and out” Bekele is awe-inspiring. Take a look at Gelila Bekele’s wiki and you’ll totally get what we’re talking about.
Gelila Bekele Is from Ethiopia
Gelila Bekele was born on September 4, 1986 in Ethiopia. She and her sister were raised in a village in their home country.
Bekele has never failed to express her pride in her heritage. She has often written her social media captions in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia.
Though she occasionally posts pictures of her parents, Bekele says she was raised by her grandmother, Almaz.
“It was a mix of both rural village and also the city. It really shaped, strangely, my adulthood as well. Like the way I connect to places, what makes me feel at home and myself. Very free, climbing trees, drinking goat milk straight from the goat. It was very rural until I was about four and then moved to the city. When you’re a kid you just adapt to everything,” said Bekele.
When Bekele was around nine, the family moved to Europe. She lived in many different places growing up and currently resides in the U.S.
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Bekele Is a Model
Bekele was a freshman at UC Berkeley when she was scouted as a model. She began her modeling career in 2006, after signing with Ford Models in Paris and New York.
Her modeling resume includes ad campaigns for Levi’s, Diesel, Tory Burch, Anna Sui, Michael Kors, H&M, Pinko, Pantene, and L’Oreal, and stunning features in multiple publications.
Bekele has seen the struggles many women in her home country face to pursue higher education first-hand. She has also seen her professional peers, who began their modeling careers as young teenagers, drop out of school to become full-time models.
Though she dropped out of UC Berkeley, too, Bekele says her older age and education level helped her to manage her finances better than her fellow models with more years in the industry. Her experiences have made her a staunch educationist and philanthropist, advocating for education for the underprivileged.
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Bekele Is a Humanitarian, Photographer and Documentary Producer
When she reached a comfortable place in her modeling career, Bekele began her pursuit of other passions. Among her humanitarian ambitions, she has been a driving force for the nonprofit charity: water.
Her humanitarian efforts have taken her all over rural Ethiopia to help people suffering from a lack of resources. During the 12-year-long journey, she also produced a documentary on Ethiopia’s water crisis titled Mai: Life Is Not Honey.
At the same time, she collaborated with photographer and author Dana Romanoff to produce a photography book, Guzo, in 2015. The book depicts a day in the life of six of the many Ethiopian ethnic tribes in photos.
Through her work, she hopes that Ethiopians living abroad and the rest of the world will see the rich culture of her country and also aid in the humanitarian efforts there.
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Bekele and Tyler Perry Have a Son Together
Tyler Perry keeps his personal life, especially his family, out of the public eye. They met at a Prince concert in 2007 and began dating after that.
And in 2014, Perry got a surprise from his girlfriend over FaceTime. “I get a FaceTime call and she’s holding up the pregnancy stick,” recalled Perry. “I’m like, ‘I guess this is happening.’”
On November 30, 2014, their son, Aman Tyler Perry, was born.
Bekele hopes her son will one day learn about his Ethiopian heritage. But there are some aspects of her culture she chooses not to include in her parenting.
“I love our tradition and I love our country but it can be very silencing to children because it’s like ‘I’m the adult and I know everything.’ I have to kind of do the opposite at times because I think my son teaches me who he is and even from discipline I see what works and what doesn’t, and just what he needs,” said Bekele.
Though they have been together for a decade, we haven’t heard any wedding bells from this couple yet. Some speculate that the Madea creator is secretly married and Bekele is his wife. However, there’s no evidence of their nuptials.
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