El-Hawary was raised in Kuwait as a child, where she had her first music lessons. "I took piano lessons and at school I used to play the accordion. You would often find me at the school choir every morning," she recalls.
During her high-school years, El-Hawary’s family moved back to Egypt, where she finished her high-school degree and attended the Faculty of Fine Arts, majoring in Theatre and Cinema design.
One might think that her passion for music would have taken her to the Music Conservatory, but "at the time I was in love with theatre and cinema… becoming an actress was one of my dreams," she giggles.
"But by my junior year, I resumed my piano lessons, frightened of losing what I had learnt as a child," she tells Ahram Online.
Following graduation, El-Hawary worked at one of Egypt's leading advertising and marketing agencies but pursued acting as well.
"My collage buddy Salam Yousry had founded the El Tamye (Clay) Theatre group and I asked him to join," she recalls