[citation needed] Gebreab worked as a journalist before becoming a full time writer.

One of his later books, የኑረነቢ ማህደር (The Nurenebi File), a hundred year long story of Eritrea and Ethiopia, received wide scale recognition locally and regionally.

[citation needed] Gebreab was born on 28 August 1968 in Ethiopia, in the town of Bishoftu.

After he became minister of Information, he relaxed censorship rules and made it possible for countless fellow authors and journalists to publish their works.

He wrote all of his books in Amharic while a few of them were translated to Tigrinya and Afan Oromo.