Maïlis Fourie was born in 1994 in Namur. After following a curriculum in mathematics and thorough sciences during high school, she started studying psychology at the Catholic University of Louvain before undertaking a Bachelor's degree in cinematography at the Haute Ecole Libre Ilya Prigogine of Bruxelles. Attracted to documentaries, The Ivory Tower is the third short-movie she directs in the span of her curriculum.