Jihan El-Tahri was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and is a writer, director and producer of documentary films. She is a French and Egyptian national.

In 1984, she received her BA in Political Science, and in 1986 her MA in Political Science from the American University in Cairo. She worked as a news correspondent with U.S. News and World Report and Reuters, TV researcher, and associate producer in Tunisia, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Algeria, and Egypt between 1984 to 1990. As a correspondent, El-Tahri covered politics in the Middle East.

In 1990, El-Tahri started directing and producing documentaries for French television, and for the BBC since 1995. In 1992 she filmed Osama bin Laden's training camps in Sudan. She also provided professional support on four of the Steps for the Future films in 2001. The documentary, The House of Saud, appeared on the BBC in 2004 and on PBS in 2005. Her most recent documentary, 'Cuba! Africa! Revolution!', appeared on BBC in 2007.

She also worked with Ahron Bregman, an Israeli historian, on The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs in 1998.

Read an interview by Joseph Fahim published in Daily News Egypt here:
http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5756

Read the BBC Four, House of Saud Director's Interview here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/storyville/saud-interview.shtml