Meet Tarek Zohdy (’06); Q&A with Voyage LA
Today we’d like to introduce you to Tarek Zohdy.
Tarek, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My family immigrated to the U.S. when I was very young, and strangely ended up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana of all places. Growing up in Louisiana wasn’t great for me to be honest. There was a lot of prejudice and ignorance prevalent, especially for an Egyptian and Muslim kid. There were very few of us around. But I ultimately did find my tribe of misfits when I attended a magnet high school for gifted and talented kids. We were mostly alternative kids who didn’t really fit in to any specific subsect of society (i.e. Jocks, Cheerleaders, Math Wiz’s, etc.) We were just kind of strange kids with few friends so we gravitated to one another.
Because I had such few friends, the ones I did have and I gravitated towards video games, magic cards, science fiction and films. I found myself immersed in fantastical worlds that I wanted to escape to, and decided when I was around 11 or 12 years old, that I wanted to work in these fantastic worlds. I wanted to be in the movies. Unfortunately, life isn’t that simple, especially growing up in Louisiana and as an Egyptian with there was very little representation on the screen. There was little outlet for that. I knew I needed a backup career, not just job. I took all the film and production classes I could in High School, then went on to college where I studied about the world (International Relations to be specific). I knew in order to actually ever make my dreams come true; I would have to get out of Louisiana. I worked hard, graduated with honors (Magna Cum Laude, top 5% of my class) from Louisiana State University and found my way out. I was accepted to one of the best Law Schools in the nation, the same one that David E. Kelly attended. I packed up and left.