Tiga

Tiga, whose real name is Sophie Alladoum Tiga Ducasse, was born on March 1, 1983 in Cotonou, Benin, to a Central African mother, director of an art gallery, and a father from the Landes, a literature teacher. Bilingual, she grew up in Burundi and traveled to many countries on the African continent before moving to France at the age of twelve, after her parents divorced. When she arrived in France, she was enrolled in a secondary school in the Landes. She practices many sports including dance, and participates in several French school championships and local shows. In high school, she put on her first shows and created her troupe called Tribales. The group went on tour for two years and performed in particular at festivals and the first parts of concerts. With her literary baccalaureate in hand, she landed a job as a choreographer at Club Med for six months in Cuba. Back in France, she studied art history and archeology at the University of Paris-Nanterre in parallel with acting classes at the Pygmalion studio. To make some pocket money, the student does odd jobs until she gets noticed by the director of the Success modeling agency. She then marched for Levi's, Courrèges, became the face of Dop shampoos, La Redoute, 3 Suisses and Quelle catalogs. When her career took off, she worked for Jean-Paul Gaultier, Dior, Azzedine Alaïa and Paco Rabanne among others.