A former actress, François-Cerrah's screen career began at age 12 in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility in which she played Margaret Dashwood alongside Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. She went on to star in Paws alongside Nathan Cavaleri and Heath Ledger, and New Year's Day, in which she played Heather.
Academic and journalistic career
François-Cerrah worked as a research assistant at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University in Washington DC. She is former assistant editor and features writer at Emel magazine. She has translated Asma Lamrabet's book which won the English Pen Award. She was a regular guest on BBC One's The Big Questions from 2008 to 2011 and on Sunday Morning Live in 2015. She has worked as a programme researcher and presenter at the BBC. In 2015 she presented a BBC1 documentary on the genocide at Srebrenica, which aired on BBC 1 on Monday 6 July 2015. The documentary was nominated for a Santford Saint Martin award for "best religious programming". In 2016, she presented "The Muslim Pound" on BBC1. She developed, produced and presented a monthly Arts and Culture documentary series called Compass for TRT World from 2015-2017, covering French politics, the migrant issue and Brexit. She worked as a programme producer on Al Jazeera's Head to Head. In 2017, she presented Channel 4’s DispatchesThe Truth About Muslim Marriages, a programme exploring Islamic marriage practices in the United Kingdom. The programme was nominated for an Asian Media Awards in 2018, in the category of Best Investigation. She is a former correspondent for the Huffington Post, where she broke a headline story on an exclusive 36-page document written by alleged al-Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. She has appeared on Newsnight, 4thought.tv, BBC News, Crosstalk, BBC Radio, Sky News and documentaries including Divine Women, presented by Bettany Hughes. In 2012, she commented on the French presidential elections for Sky News, as well as the French presidential inauguration and 2012 local elections and regularly comments on current affairs, in particular related to France or the Middle East. She has guest lectured at universities including Harvard University, Birmingham, Luther College and an annual guest lecture at Kingston University, UK. She also spoke at the 2015 HowTheLightsGetsIn Hay-on-Wye Festival. She is a regular presenter at high profile events, including the Mayor of London's Eid Festival 2019 and the London Modest Fashion Festival 2018, among others. Her most recent documentary City of Refuge, looked at the plight of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and aired on BBC Radio 4 in 2019. Her articles have been featured in the Middle East Eye, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, New Statesman, Your Middle East, The London Paper, Jadaliyya, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Daily Telegraph, Salon, Index on Censorship, The F-Word and the magazine Emel. She is a Research Associate at School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East, where she researches issues related to British Muslims, integration and racism. She was a judge for the 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction books.
Personal life
In 2003, at 21 years old, François-Cerrah converted to Islam after graduating from Cambridge. At the time, she was a sceptical Roman Catholic. She rejects the use of the words "convert" or "revert" as "exclusionary", describing herself as "just Muslim".
