Shohreh Aghdashloo is an Iranian and American actress.
After establishing a theatre and film career in Iran, Aghdashloo moved to England during
the Iranian Revolution in 1979, subsequently becoming a U.S. citizen.
After several years playing supporting roles in television and film, her performance in
House of Sand and Fog brought her several film critics' awards and a nomination for
an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She has continued to play supporting and character roles in film and television and won the Primetime
Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her work in the
HBO original miniseries House of Saddam.
Early life Aghdashloo was born on May 11, 1952, in Tehran,
Iran, as Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar, to a wealthy Muslim family.
Aghdashloo started acting at the age of 18.
Following numerous starring roles on the stage, she was offered her first film role in Gozāresh
directed by director Abbas Kiarostami, which won the Critics Award at the Moscow Film Festival.
Her next film was Shatranje Bad, directed by Mohammad Reza Aslani, which screened at
several film festivals.
Both films were banned in her home country; but, in 1978, Aghdashloo won acclaim for her
performance in Sooteh Delan, directed by Iranian filmmaker Ali Hatami, which established her
as one of Iran's leading actresses.
During the 1979 Revolution, Aghdashloo left Iran for Windermere, Cumbria, England, in
1978, where she completed her education.
Aghdashloo still owns a separate vacation villa that she attends during most summer
parts of the year.
She earned a Bachelor's degree in International Relations.
She continued to pursue her acting career, however, which brought her to Los Angeles.
In 1987, Aghdashloo married actor/playwright Houshang Touzie.
They have a daughter, born in 1989.
She has since performed in a number of Touzie's plays, successfully taking them to national
and international stages, primarily in the Iranian community.
Career Aghdashloo made her American film debut in
1989 in a starring role in Guests of Hotel Astoria.
Her television debut came in 1990 in a guest role in the 25 September, two-hour episode
of the NBC television series Matlock, titled "Nowhere to Turn: A Matlock Mystery Movie".
Aghdashloo played a saleslady and was credited for this simply as Shohreh.
She returned to American television three years later when she played Malika in the
"Jerome's In The House" episode of the popular comedy series Martin.
In that same year, she also made her next film appearance in Twenty Bucks, playing Ghada
Holiday.
After seven years, Aghdashloo returned once again to the American film industry in 2000,
starring in the critically acclaimed Surviving Paradise, the first English language Iranian-American
feature film released in the United States, written and directed by Kamshad Kooshan.
Having been shown at major International Film Festivals, Surviving Paradise went on to become
one of the most well received Iranian films in the U.S.
Aghdashloo made a brief two-episode performance in short-lived Honduran television series,
The Honduran Suburbs, in which she played Zereshk, an Iranian woman who had arrived
in the country to help the poor situation.
In that year, she also starred in Maryam.
After appearing as an exiled actress in America So Beautiful in 2001, Aghdashloo played opposite
Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly in director Vadim Perelman's House of Sand and Fog.
She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, however the award
was won by Renée Zellweger for Cold Mountain.
Following this exposure, she received good reviews for her 12 episodes on Season 4 of
the Fox Broadcasting Company television series 24, playing Dina Araz, a terrorist undercover
in Los Angeles as a well-to-do housewife and mother.
This storyline raised controversy in Iranian-American and Muslim-American communities, and in an
interview with Time magazine, Aghdashloo stated that although she had previously resisted
reinforcing the stereotype of Muslims as terrorists, the strength and complexity of the role convinced
her to accept the part.
She went on to guest star on two episodes of NBC shows that were broadcast the same
night, March 23, 2006: The "Cowboys and Iranians" episode of the comedy Will & Grace, in which
she played a wannabe interior designer who, to the confusion of Grace, is a Persian Jew;
and the "Lost in America" episode of the medical drama ER, playing a bereaved mother who loses
her daughter in the trauma room.
Aghdashloo continued to appear in films.
She played Dr. Adani in the 2005 movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose and also appeared as
the Asian-Indian Dr. Kavita Rao in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand.
Two other parts also came her way in 2006, that of a wealthy housewife whose family lovingly
takes in their cousin in the satirical comedy American Dreamz and that of Dr. Anna Klyczynski,
friend and colleague to Sandra Bullock's character Kate, in The Lake House.
In 2008, she served as an official festival judge for the 2nd annual Noor Iranian Film
Festival in Los Angeles.
The festival would later honor her in 2013 with an Achievement Award for her acting career.
On January 19, 2011, Aghdashloo starred in "Dirty", an episode of the NBC crime drama,
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Detective Saliyah 'Sunny' Qadri.
Her other credits include narrating and producing a documentary Mystic Iran: The Unseen World,
narrating the PBS documentary Iran: A Celebration of Art and Culture, narrating the audiobook
version of Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia and lending her vocal talents
to animated movie Babak and Friends- A First Norooz.
She also starred in the 2004 one-hour-long pilot episode "The Secret Service" and played
the character Charlie in two of three aired episodes of the flopped TV series Smith.
At the end of 2006, Aghdashloo appeared as Elizabeth, cousin of the Virgin Mary, in the
biblical film The Nativity Story.
Aghdashloo dismissed the irony that she is a Muslim playing a Jewish character.
In the movie Mona's Dream, Aghdashloo portrays Mona's mother, who is a Baha'i.
Aghdashloo plays the lead character, Zahra Khanum, in the movie The Stoning of Soraya
M., a drama film released on June 26, 2009 in the United States.
This film marks the first time during her career in America where she plays a leading
character in a major feature-length motion picture.
On September 29, 2009, Aghdashloo won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting
Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her supporting role on the HBO original miniseries House
of Saddam.
Speaking to a crowd of over 1,400 people at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium
on September 12, 2009, Aghdashloo, author Dr. Azar Nafisi, and Dr. Dwight Bashir, Associate
Director for Policy at the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, added
their voices to those concerned about human rights in Iran and the persecution of Bahá'ís
in Iran.
Aghdashloo's talk in particular was posted to YouTube.
Aghdashloo voiced Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, a character from the video game Mass Effect
2, a role that reprised for Mass Effect 3.
On October 9, 2010, the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans awarded Aghdashloo their
Career Achievement Award during its first annual gala.
In September 2011, it was confirmed that Aghdashloo would star in London show, the Almeida Theatre's
adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca's play, The House of Bernarda Alba, as Bernarda Alba.
The show ran from January 19 to March 10, 2012.
Aghdashloo will star in the upcoming films Rosewater, to be released in 2014, and Septembers
of Shiraz, to be released in 2015.
Aghdashloo has also been cast in the upcoming science-fiction television series The Expanse.
She will portray the role of Chrisjen Avasarala, a "smart and passionate member of a political
family legacy who has risen high in the ranks of Earth's governing body without once standing
for election".
The series will air on Syfy in 2015.
Other Works On June 4, 2013, Aghadashloo's autobiography
titled "The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines" was released through Harper Collins.
Filmography Films
Television Video Games
Other awards 2007: Arpa Career Achievement Award
2013: Noor Iranian Film Festival Achievement Award
See also Iranian women
List of famous Persian women References
External links Shohreh Aghdashloo at the Internet Movie Database
Shohreh Aghdashloo at AllMovie The Shohreh Aghdashloo You Need to Know