She attended the same high school that Tom Hanks went to.
She caught the world traveling bug from her Mother, an avid globetrotter who saved her money to take them on trips around the world every summer when Nnegest was a kid.
Her professional mentor is the late Bobby Newmyer who took a chance on her when he offered to let her direct her first feature film, Phat Girlz. He mortgaged his house to finance the movie before Fox Searchlight picked it up.