Tiga

Born

1983-03-01

Birthplace

Cotonou, Benin

Biography

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. Her life takes an unexpected turn when her family pushes her to enter beauty contests. In December 2005 on TF1, she was elected first runner-up to Miss France 2006. The President of the Central African Republic François Bozizé invited her to congratulate her and named her Ambassador of Central African Beauty and Knight of the Order of National Merit. Contacted by Endemol, she made her debut as a columnist in 2007 on TF1 in Les Enfants de la télé. On W9, she presents the Hit Talent for three years and co-hosts the MicroMania Awards with Bertrand Amar. She also embodies the character of Jenna in the last two episodes of season 5 of Research Section on TF1. After living temporarily in New York to take documentary classes, she arrived on the France Ô channel where she was entrusted with the magazine Ô Féminin. She also hosts programs on alternative sports such as Riding Zone (weekly & premium), Destination Glisse (weekly) and the Fise competition (International Extreme Sports Festival). In 2013, she presented the Telethon live on France Ô alongside Claudy Siar. It was that same year that she created Coup de Pouce Des Anges, a humanitarian association that works with NGOs to help send medicines, build care units or orphanages in African countries. At the beginning of 2018, she became one of the alternating presenters of Échappées belles on France 5. She is also co-presenter of the program The Favorite Village of the French with Raphaël de Casabianca alongside Stéphane Bern on France 2.