Shohreh Aghdashloo

**Shohreh Aghdashloo** (Persian: شهره آغداشلو, pronounced [ʃohˈɾe ɒɢdɒʃˈluː]; born **Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar** (شهره وزیری‌تبار); May 11, 1952) is an Iranian and American actress. Following numerous starring roles on the stage, she made her film debut in *The Chess Game of the Wind* (1976). Her next two films *The Report* (1977) and *Sooteh Delan* (1977) garnered critical acclaim and established Aghdashloo as one of Iran's leading actresses, although the films were banned in Iran itself.

Aghdashloo moved to England during the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and then to the United States, subsequently becoming a U.S. citizen. After several years playing small roles in television and film, her performance in *House of Sand and Fog* (2003) brought her several film critics' awards and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other film appearances include *The Exorcism of Emily Rose* (2005), *X-Men: The Last Stand* and *The Nativity Story* (both 2006), *The Odd Life of Timothy Green* (2013) and *Star Trek Beyond* (2016).

In television, she is best known for her roles as Dina Araz in the fourth season of *24* and as Chrisjen Avasarala on *The Expanse* (2015–2022). For her role as Sajida Talfah in the HBO miniseries *House of Saddam* (2008), she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. In 2013, she released her autobiography titled *The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines*.

## Early life

Aghdashloo was born Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar (Persian: شهره وزیری‌تبار) in Tehran, the daughter of Effie (née al-Sadat) and Anushiravan Vaziri-Tabar. She has three brothers: Shahram, Shahriar and Shahrokh. Her stage name is from the family name of her first husband, painter Aydin Aghdashloo. After their marriage in 1972 when she was 19 and he was 31, she began attending theatre workshops, against the wishes of her family. She had always wanted to be an actress, and soon began playing leading roles in Iranian theatre and film. They did not have children and were divorced in 1979, when she left Iran for England at the start of the Iranian Revolution.
Once Aghdashloo arrived in England, she earned a bachelor's degree in international relations at Brunel University because of her interest in politics after having to leave her home country. She was already familiar with England, as her parents had taken her to London as a child. She then continued to pursue her acting career, which brought her to Los Angeles. In 1987, Aghdashloo married actor/playwright Houshang Touzie. They have a daughter, Tara Touzie, 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 diaspora. Though born to a Muslim family, she has stated that she is non-practicing.

## Career

Aghdashloo first began working as a theatre actress at the age of 19, when she starred in a theatrical adaptation of the novel *The Narrow Road to the Deep North* (1973). Aghdashloo made her American film debut in 1989 in a starring role in *Guests of Hotel Astoria*. Her television debut came on September 25, 1990, in a guest role in the two-hour episode of the NBC television series *Matlock*, titled "Nowhere to Turn: A Matlock Mystery Movie". In the years that followed Aghdashloo appeared on screen sporadically, including in the widely panned *Surviving Paradise* (2000), written and directed by Kamshad Kooshan.

In 2001 Aghdashloo was cast opposite Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly in director Vadim Perelman's *House of Sand and Fog* (2003) for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Following this exposure Aghdashloo had a prominent recurring role in Season 4 of the Fox television series *24*, playing Dina Araz, a terrorist undercover in Los Angeles as a well-to-do housewife and mother. 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 it. Iranian film scholar Hamid Naficy criticized Aghdashloo's acting in "the sensationalist film *The Stoning of Soraya M.*" as "discredit[ing] her vow not to play in films that stereotype Middle Easterners, including Iranians." In the period that followed, Aghdashloo made guest appearances on several well-known television series, such as *Will & Grace*, *ER* and *Grey's Anatomy*. She also played supporting roles in films such as *X-Men: The Last Stand* as Dr. Kavita Rao, *The Lake House*, *The Nativity Story* as Elizabeth, and *The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2*.

In 2008, Aghdashloo served as an official festival judge at the second annual Noor Iranian Film Festival in Los Angeles, while she also played the lead character of Zahra Khanum in the film *The Stoning of Soraya M.*, marking her first leading role in a feature-length American film. In the same year, she also portrayed Sajida Talfah in the HBO original miniseries *House of Saddam* for which she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. 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 Baháʼís in Iran. Aghdashloo's talk in particular was posted to YouTube. On October 9, 2010, the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans awarded Aghdashloo their Career Achievement Award during its first annual gala.

Agdashloo continues to act in films, such as *The Odd Life of Timothy Green*, *Septembers of Shiraz* and *Star Trek Beyond*; and on television, guest starring on series such as *House, M.D.*, *The Simpsons*, *Grimm*, *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* and *NCIS*. She also voiced characters for the video games *Mass Effect 2*, *Mass Effect 3*, *Destiny* and *Destiny 2*; starred in the London revival of the play *The House of Bernarda Alba* at the Almeida Theatre as Bernarda Alba; and narrated the audiobook *And the Mountains Echoed*, by Khaled Hosseini.

Aghdashloo currently stars on Amazon Prime Video's acclaimed television series *The Expanse*, as UN Deputy Undersecretary of Executive Administration 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".

## External links

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0013037/

https://web.archive.org/web/\*/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/651718%7C\*