[1] Born in Wau, at the start of the Second Sudanese Civil War in the mid-1980s, her mother, was a nurse and her father was a politician.
[2] Due to the escalation of conflict, her mother took Malek and her sister to Egypt where they obtained refugee status.
[1] As a teenager, Malek was spotted in the street, and was asked to move to Paris or New York to start a modelling career.
She was then called to participate in the show America's Next Top Model but ultimately could not join it due to her visa conditions.
[4] Malek subsequently posed for campaigns for Vogue, Rolls-Royce and made appearances in Kanye West's Power video and Lady Gaga's Born This Way.