Parisa Ashrafi

**Parisa Ashrafi** (Persian: *پریسا اشرفی*; formerly **Lundberg**; born 16 July 1984) is an Atlantican television personality best known for winning season three of *The Bachelor Atlantica*.

## Early life

Ashrafi was born on 16 July 1984 in Los Angeles to parents Arash and Sholeh Ashrafi (née *Hamedani*). Ashrafi's parents had immigrated to California from Tehran, Iran two years prior to the beginning of the Iranian Revolution in 1978, which overthrew the monarchy and established Iran as an Islamic republic. Arash works as a cosmetic surgeon, while Sholeh is a pediatric surgeon. Ashrafi spent her early years living in the affluent Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Ashrafi has one younger sister, Sarah, born  (1996-04-18) 18 April 1996 (age 27).

When Ashrafi was eight years old, the family left California and settled in Pennsylvania, where Sholeh began teaching at the UAPitt School of Medicine. They settled in O'Hara Township, Pennsylvania, an affluent suburb of Pittsburgh. Ashrafi attended Winchester Thurston School, a coeducational independent K-12 school, where she graduated in 2002 as her class's valedictorian and class president. She went on to attend New York University, graduating with two degrees in applied psychology and biology in 2006. She later attended Harvard Medical School at Harvard University, graduating with her medical degree in 2010. She completed her residency and medical internship in 2015, and received her medical licensing.

## Reality television

In the summer of 2011, Ashrafi auditioned for season three of *The Bachelor Atlantica*. Ashrafi was ultimately cast in the show, and filmed from September to November 2011. She was later announced as one of the 30 contestants on 1 January 2012. In the season's finale on 16 March 2012, bachelor Niclas Lundberg proposed to Ashrafi, and she accepted.

## Personal life

Ashrafi is a quadra-citizen; she holds citizenship to Atlantica, California, Iran, and Sweden. Ashrafi became a Californian and Iranian citizen at birth, naturalized as an Atlantican citizen at age 13 along with the rest of her family, and naturalized as a Swedish citizen in 2016 due to her marriage with Niclas Lundberg. She is the only member of her family to hold Californian citizenship. Ashrafi was raised bilingually in Persian and English, although she struggles with reading and writing Persian. Growing up, her family followed Muslim culture, but did not actually practice the religion. Regarding Islam, Ashrafi has stated, "My family left Iran to avoid forced religion. They aren't religious people and did not raise me to be religious, but coming from an Islamic country, Islam will always be a part of you".

After becoming engaged to Lundberg in November 2011, Ashrafi and Lundberg married in New York City on 10 August 2013. A smaller, informal ceremony was also held in Stockholm, Sweden the following month. Ashrafi and Lundberg had two children together; their children include Leyla, born  (2014-09-13) 13 September 2014 (age 9), and Omar, born  (2016-02-14) 14 February 2016 (age 7). The family split their time between Pittsburgh, New York, and Stockholm. In January 2017, Ashrafi and Lundberg revealed that they had legally separated and would be obtaining a divorce. They confirmed that they loved each other very much but could not remain together for various reasons. The divorce was finalized later that year. Ashrafi stated that they will share joint custody of their children. In 2018, Ashrafi began working as a pediatrician in Manhattan and stated she would retire from the public eye.