Ellen helps pay off refugee-turned-teacher’s student debt

Ekhlas Ahmed (left) and Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres recently had on her eponymous talk show a teacher, Ekhlas Ahmed, who previously wrote to the TV host for inspiring her after she moved to the United States 10 years ago. Ahmed and her family fled Sudan when she was 12 to escape the country’s strife, and eventually moved to Maine, where she still lives.

“I had the most beautiful childhood…being a regular kid, that’s what I remember,” the refugee-turned-educator recalled between tears and giggles. “My family had to leave,” Ahmed told DeGeneres. “The genocide in Darfur, it’s still happening as we speak.”

When she was new in Maine, Ahmed got lost for hours on the first day of school, so she vowed to learn English. “We didn’t have cable, to be honest…we had local channels, which was great; the ‘Ellen’ show was right at 4—I come from school at 3:30,” recounted Ahmed, who watched the show, wrote down and memorized words, and looked for their meaning.

Fast-forward to today: The girl from Africa is a teacher to high school students. “I wake up with a smile every morning because of them,” said the mentor-activist.

“I think it’s important for everybody to have an example,” said DeGeneres, who announced that she would help sell her guest’s student-made calendar about African culture.

DeGeneres also surprised Ahmed, who was working two jobs, with a $22,000 check from photo publishing company Shutterfly, to pay off the latter’s student debts.

Swinton on ‘Doctor Who?’

While there are “Doctor Who” fans who oppose the transformation of the titular character into a female version of the traditionally male immortal, there have been rumors of Tilda Swinton possibly replacing Peter Capaldi, who announced that his stint on the British series will end later this year.

Capaldi and previous stars of the long-running science fiction show, David Tennant and Billie Piper, have expressed support for a woman Doctor. A similarly regenerating character from the show, the tyrannical Master, is currently female and is called Missy (short for “mistress,” played by Michelle Gomez).

Hayley Atwell

Hayley Atwell, who previously starred in two seasons of “Agent Carter,” expressed interest in playing The Doctor in 2015, when a fan asked if she wanted to appear in the show. “I’d like to be Doctor Who,” she said.

Joe Manganiello in “Magic Mike”

Stoked about Deathstroke

Joe Manganiello, who was cast as the formidable assassin Deathstroke in the coming “Batman” film, is stoked about his role. The longtime comic book reader and former “True Blood” and “Magic Mike” actor recently posted a photo of different Deathstroke toys and graphic novels on Twitter, with the hashtags “research” and “research2.”—OLIVER PULUMBARIT