A graduate in international relations (ULB) and European politics (IEE), Safia Kessas is a journalist while making documentaries on social issues. In 2003, she directed and then produced the programmes Tout ça ne nous rendra pas le Congo for RTBF. She then developed a global strategy to make RTBF more inclusive in terms of equality and diversity especially towards LGTBQIA+ people and to prevent violence against women.
In 2019, she created on the RTBF website Les Grenades, a digital feminist news medium, including podcasts and radio. In 2020, she launched a new literary prize specifically dedicated to women, in partnership with Scam. Her documentary work includes Le prix de la déraison (focussing on women repatriated from Syria) broadcast on RTBF and LCP, La voie d'Henriette on the issue of undocumented women (winner of the MAX Diversity Film Festival in London in 2021 and selected for the short film corner at the Cannes Festival in 2022) and the series Au nom de Safia, which traces the life of her Algerian family.
She is a regular collaborator of several Belgian cultural institutions including La Monnaie, Mundaneum, BOZAR and the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles.