Yasmin Warsame

Yasmin Abshir Warsame is a Somali-Canadian fashion model and activist. She has achieved widespread recognition within the global fashion industry, appearing on major international magazine covers and walking for top runway brands. In 2004, a poll conducted by Fashion magazine named her "The Most Alluring Canadian."

Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1976, Warsame is of Muslim faith. At the age of fifteen, she relocated alongside her family from Somalia to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where she spent her youth.

Warsame was initially discovered by SHOK Models. In 2000, she resumed her modeling career by signing with Ford Models in Toronto, securing an early assignment for the Sears catalogue. After transitioning to NEXT Models Canada, she appeared on the cover of Lush Magazine in the summer of 2002, photographed by Koby Inc, before moving to Paris to expand her international presence.

Over the course of her career, Warsame has been represented by numerous top modeling agencies around the world, including NEXT in Toronto, Montreal, Paris, and London, IMG New York, View Barcelona, and Tony Jones Amsterdam. She has graced the covers of prominent fashion publications such as Vogue Italia, American Vogue, British and American Elle, Amica, Surface, YYZ Living in December 2011, and a 2012 feature editorial in Flare.

In addition to editorial work, Warsame has walked the runway for leading haute couture and ready-to-wear designers, including Christian Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier. Her career also encompasses major global promotional campaigns for major brands such as Valentino couture, Escada, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermès, Chanel, Shiseido, GAP, and H&M.

Beyond print and runway modeling, Warsame expanded into television in 2007 when she joined the second cycle of the Canadian reality competition series Canada's Next Top Model as a judge. Later, in 2021, she made her acting debut in the film The Gravedigger's Wife, directed by Khadar Ayderus Ahmed.

Warsame remains signed with IMG Models and currently divides her time between New York City and Toronto.