Mantegaftot Sileshi Siyoum completed his theatre studies in 2001 before working as a director from 2002 to 2005. He later
launched Abugida_Prod, an advertising company. Siyoum was trained in 2007 at the Deutsche Welle Academy in 2007. Since 2009, he works for the Academy's "Learning by Ear" educational programme, where he is also a presenter for the Amharic desk. His film "Gerreta" won the International shorts first prize at the 2015 River Film Festival in Padova, Italy.