Exiled and Famous: Ten Celebrity Refugees

Refugee Week (15-21 June), a program of arts, cultural and educational events and activities, celebrates the contribution of refugees to the UK and raises awareness, promoting better understanding of why people seek sanctuary. This gallery features profiles of ten refugees who have made a difference and left a mark in the world.

1/10

© AP Photo

Rita is a British singer, songwriter and actress. She was born in the capital of Kosovo and left with her family when she was one year old. She studied at Sylvia Young Stage School, and was signed by Jaz-Z’s label Roc Nation in 2009.

2/10

© AP Photo

M.I.A. (Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam) is an award winning recording artist who was born in Sri Lanka to Tamil parents and moved to London. She is also a songwriter, painter and director.

3/10

© AP Photo

Rapper, musician and actor Wyclef Jean left Haiti when he was 9 years old and moved to the United States, where he eventually became part of a group called The Fugees and won three Grammy Awards for his musical work. In 2010 he applied for candidacy in the 2010 Haitian presidential election but was ruled ineligible to stand as he had not met the requirement to have been resident in Haiti for five years.

4/10

© AP Photo

Since the Chinese army put down the Tibetan uprising in 1959, the political and spiritual leader of Tibet Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama) has been living outside his homeland, turning to northern Indian city of Dharamsala to establish a home base.

5/10

© AP Photo

"Never on Sunday" star Melina Mercouri rose from being an actress with a worldwide following to being Greece's most famous Minister of Culture. At the time of the coup d'état in Greece by a group of colonels of the Greek military on 21 April 1967, Mercouri was in the US. She joined the struggle against the Greek military junta and started an international campaign, travelling all over the world to inform the public and contribute to the isolation and fall of the colonels.

6/10

© AP Photo

Famous for his role in The Godfather III and many other films, the Academy Award winner Andy Garcia was actually born in Havana, Cuba. After the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, a five-year-old Garcia left Cuba for Miami, where the family set up a successful perfume business.

7/10

© AP Photo

Madeleine Albright was the United States' first female Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the US government. She was born Marie Jana Korbelova and when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia during World War II, her family fled to England. In 1948 they immigrated to the United States when Albright was 11 years old, and settled in Denver, Colorado.

8/10

© AP Photo

Lucian Freud, a German-born painter, was the most celebrated British figurative painter of the late 20th century. He was born in Berlin, to Ernst Freud, the youngest son of the great psychoanalyst Sigmund, and Lucie Brasch. His parents, Lucian and his brothers – Stephen and Clement – moved to England in the summer of 1933 fearing Nazi Germany’s restrictions persecution of Jews.

9/10

© AP Photo

Actress and singer Marlene Dietrich was a living legend, famous for performances in movies such as "Blue Angel" and "Touch of Evil". She was also one of the most prominent political refugees of her generation, speaking out against Hitler and singing for the US troops in World War II.

10/10

© AP Photo / File

Few know of Albert Einstein’s days as a refugee, when his books were thrown into Hitler's bonfires, and as a German Jew, Einstein was accused of treason. The rise of the Nazi party and anti-Semitism made it increasingly difficult for him to work in Germany and in 1932 he took up the offer of a post at Princeton. He became a citizen of the United States, but also retained Swiss citizenship.