Azita Ghanizada
Azita Ghanizada is an Afghan-born American actress. Life and career. Azita Ghanizada's life in America began as a political asylum seeker. Her father's relationships from working at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran afforded her family the opportunity to flee Afghanistan when she was a baby. She learned most of her English from watching American Television in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C; her fascination to learn from American T.V., combined with the family's regular trips to a local cinema that showed Bollywood movies, and her mother's passionate love of Indian and American  film stars, inspired her to become an actress. She relocated to Los Angeles, California and began her on-camera career by working in television commercials and guest starring on popular television shows. Her multi-ethnic appearance has enabled her to remain a chameleon on film and TV. A few of her notable television guest-starring roles include "How I Met Your Mother", "Entourage", "Veronica Mars", "The Mentalist ", "Psych", "Ghost Whisperer", "Castle", and "Up All Night". In 2016, she was named "One of The 7 Sundance Break-out Actresses You Need to Know," for her work in "Complete Unknown." Her first  main role on television was in 2008, when Ghanizada joined the cast of the "General Hospital" prime-time spin-off "" for season 2 as Dr. Saira Batra, a specialist in holistic medicine. The following year she joined the all-star cast of the television pilot "Tough Trade" starring opposite Sam Shepard and Cary Elwes, from "Weeds" creator Jenji Kohan, and executive producer T Bone Burnett. In 2010, she joined David Strathairn as a primary cast member of the American Syfy Channel series "Alphas" where she played Rachel Pirzad, a woman with enhanced sensory abilities. "Alphas" was picked up to series  in 2011 but only lasted two seasons. She went on to film the comedy pilot "Ellen More or Less" in 2014 as a primary cast member for NBC directed by Peyton Reed, the television pilot was not picked up to series. In 2016, Azita appeared in the feature "Complete Unknown" opposite Rachel Weisz and Michael Shannon, in 2017 she began production on Kevin Smith's feature film "Killroy Was Here". And in 2019, she began recurring roles on both "Ballers" and "Good Trouble". Her latest slate of features include a small role in Gabriela Cowperthwaite's "Our Friend", as well  as the comedy feature "We Broke Up". An outspoken advocate for representation and inclusion, in 2016, Azita founded the MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition, MAAC, and began to advocate on behalf of Middle Eastern North African (MENA) and South Asian (described as "MENASA" and defined as to include those who are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, according to MAAC) performers. She and MAAC member, "Assaf Cohen", spent two years lobbying SAG-AFTRA to include Middle Eastern North African (MENA) as its own diverse category in the producers theatrical contracts. In 2017, their advocacy work proved successful and for the first time  in 37 years, a new diversity category was introduced to the 2017 SAG-AFTRA - AMPTP TV/Theatrical contracts. In 2018, MAAC presented the first ever study on MENA performers on PrimeTime TV. MAAC, has had an incredible impact helping create awareness and visibility for the MENA and South Asian community of performers and creatives. She actively speaks on representation and inclusion issues in the media, on social media, in business environments and on industry panels, and in 2019 gave her first "TedXTalk". The