Sueraya Shaheen graduated from a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts at Corcoran college of Art and Design in Washington DC in 1994. She worked as a freelance photojournalist for twenty, which influenced the style of portraiture that she uses in her work. She had to flee her country in 1975 due to the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. Since then, she has lived in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, where she is currently based in.