Manal Issa was born in France. During her early years, she went to live in Lebanon, but three years later, she returned to study in France because of the 2006 Lebanon war . There, she graduated as an engineering student at the Angers Institute of Science and Technology ( ISTIA ). She was found on social media by Lebanese director Danielle Arbid , who was looking for someone to play a young Lebanese woman recently arrived in France for the film Peur de rien