Pensée Ismael is an artist and educator from Alexandria, Egypt. During the 2024–2025 academic year, she was a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant and visiting scholar at Grinnell College. While at Grinnell, she curated I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face, a film program presented in the Introduction to Film Studies course with Professor Nicky Tavares. The program paid tribute to experimental documentary films from Egypt, reflecting her deep engagement with independent cinema from her home country.

In the spring semester, her interest in performance led her to create four site-specific works in the Performance Possibilities class with Professor Craig Quintero. These pieces explored space, memory, and embodiment through live performance. Rooted in the emotional and political landscapes of her homeland, each work positioned her own body as both form and content—a living site of resistance.

Before coming to the United States, Pensée studied English Literature and Translation. She became involved in Egypt’s post-revolution independent cinema scene, which led to the creation of her first creative documentary, Ghena: One More Time (2020). In 2021, she premiered her first lecture performance, Sometimes Kafka, Sometimes Khalo (with "Khalo" meaning maternal uncle in Arabic), at Behna Al Wekala in Alexandria, Egypt.