Sanda Bourenane

Sanda Lydia Bourenane was born in Montreal, Canada. Her parents are Kenza Bait and Hocine Bourenane, both Algerians that came in Montreal in 1987. Her mother owns a cosmetic distribution business Les Distributions Kenzi and her father is a operations management lecturer at The University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). He graduated from Stanford University in 1982. Her older sister Celia Bourenane, is a Marketing graduate, that also works in the Film and Television industry. It's in 2010 that Sanda stared in her first leading role in a movie, "Romeo Onze" directed by Ivan Grbovic , in which she plays Sabine. The movie won many awards such as : "Le Prix Focus, meilleur long metrage canadien", "FNC, Human Values Award", "Thessalonik, IFF", "Prix Decouverte, Namur" "FIFF, Mention speciale du jury oecumenique, Karlovy Vary IFF". Sanda continues to act on stage and on television. She also studied International Development at McGill University, where she will get her bachelor's degree in 2014. She now lives in Paris where she studied acting at Les Cours Florent for 3 years. She now does a lot of profesionnal theater in Paris. Sanda began her acting career on stage at a very young age by entering her High School Drama Department at only 11 years old. Back then, she was the only student her age to be chosen to play along with seniors; where she stared in different French plays such as : "L'Auberge des morts subtites" in 2003, "Comedie sur un quai de gare" in 2004, "Au bout du fil" in 2005, "Les Heros de mon enfance" in 2006 and "La femme du boulanger" in 2009. She won the best actress award 5 years in a row. Her first television experience was being an extra on a music video for Loco Locas a French Hip Hop group, in 2006. During her stay at College Letendre High School, she fulfilled her passion for dancing by forming Twisted Flavaz, a Hip Hop dance group. The group did several shows, but Sanda had to quit to pursue her acting passion. She decided to start acting in English and entered the John Abbott College's Theater Program, where she completed her DEC degree in 2011. French being her first language, Sanda stood out from all the other English speaking students and impressed her teachers by getting leading roles in English school plays; such as: "The Heidi Chronicles" ;where she played Heidi in 2010 and The Penelopiad, where she played Penelope in 2011. But Sanda didn't want to quit acting in french plays, so she continued by joining "Acte 1" a Theater group. That's where she met her agent.