| Shohreh Aghdashloo | |
| Native Name: | Persian: شهره آغداشلو |
| Birth Name: | Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar |
| Birth Date: | 11 May 1952 |
| Birth Place: | Tehran, Pahlavi Iran |
| Nationality: | Iranian |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1976–present |
| Spouse: | |
| Children: | 1 |
| Alma Mater: | Brunel University |
Shohreh Aghdashloo (Persian: شهره آغداشلو, in Persian pronounced as /ʃohˈɾe ɒɢdɒʃˈluː/; née Vaziri-Tabar (Persian: وزیریتبار); born May 11, 1952) is an Iranian actress. She has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Satellite Award, in addition to a nomination for an Academy Award.
Following numerous starring roles on the stage, she made her film debut in Chess 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 ladies, 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), 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).[1] 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.[2] In 2021, she voiced Grayson in Netflix's series Arcane. In 2024, Aghdashloo voiced the unnamed dragon in the 2024 Netflix film Damsel. She also voices Roshan in Assassin's Creed Mirage.
Aghdashloo was born Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar (Persian: شهره وزیریتبار) in Tehran, the daughter of Effie (alSadat) 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.[3]
Once Aghdashloo arrived in England, she earned a bachelor's degree in international relations at Brunel University[4] 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. She has since performed in a number of Touzie's plays, successfully taking them to national and international stages, primarily in the Iranian diaspora.[5] Though born to a Muslim family, she has stated that she is non-practicing.[6]
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).[7] 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),[8] [9] [10] 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)[11] for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.[12] Following this exposure Aghdashloo had a prominent recurring role in Season 4 of the Fox television series 24,[13] 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."[14] 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 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.,[15] 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.[16] Aghdashloo's talk in particular was posted to YouTube.[17] On October 9, 2010, the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans awarded Aghdashloo their Career Achievement Award during its first annual gala.[18] 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, and NCIS. She also voiced characters for the video games Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Destiny Destiny 2, and Assassin's Creed Mirage; 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.[19]
Aghdashloo recently starred in 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".
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | 1976 | The Chess Game of the Wind | Lady’s Maid | First film role in Iran, directed by Mohammed Reza Aslani |
| scope=row | 1977 | The Report | Azam Firuzkui | |
| scope=row | 1978 | Sooteh-Delan | Aghdas | |
| scope=row | 1989 | Guests of Hotel Astoria | Mrs. Pori Karemnia | First American film role |
| scope=row | 1991 | Raha | Raha | |
| scope=row | 1993 | Twenty Bucks | Ghada Holiday | |
| scope=row | 2000 | Surviving Paradise | Pari | First English language Iranian-American feature film distributed theatrically in the United States, written and directed by Kamshad Kooshan |
| scope=row | 2001 | America So Beautiful | Exiled Actress | |
| scope=row | 2002 | Maryam | Mrs. Homa Armin | |
| scope=row rowspan="4" | 2003 | Possessed | Woman | Short film by Shirin Neshat |
| Pulse | Woman | |||
| Mystic Iran | Narrator | Documentary film by Aryana Farshad | ||
| House of Sand and Fog | Nadereh 'Nadi' Behrani | Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (3rd place) New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated–Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated–Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2005 | The Exorcism of Emily Rose | Dr. Sadira Adani | |
| Babak and Friends – A First Norooz | Farah | Animated film | ||
| scope=row rowspan="4" | 2006 | American Dreamz | Mrs. Nazneen Riza | |
| The Lake House | Dr. Anna Klyczynski | |||
| Dr. Kavita Rao | ||||
| The Nativity Story | Elizabeth | |||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2008 | The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 | Professor Nasrin Mehani | |
| The Stoning of Soraya M. | Zahra Khanum | Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2010 | The Adjustment Bureau | The Chairman | Scenes deleted |
| The No Game | Aunt Laila | |||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2011 | Iranium | Narrator | Documentary film by Alex Traiman |
| On the Inside | Dr. Lofton | |||
| scope=row | 2012 | The Odd Life of Timothy Green | Evette Onat | |
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2013 | The Oracle | Voice[20] | |
| Silk | Rani | Short film by Catherine Dent | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2014 | Rosewater | Moloojoon | |
| Still Here | Farzaneh | Short film by Ethan Rains | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2015 | Last Knights | Maria | |
| Septembers of Shiraz | Habibeh | |||
| scope=row rowspan="3" | 2016 | Star Trek Beyond | Commodore Paris | |
| Window Horses | Mehrnaz | Animated film | ||
| The Promise | Marta Boghosian | |||
| scope=row | 2018 | A Simple Wedding | Ziba Husseini | Also executive producer |
| scope=row | 2019 | The Cuban | Bano Ayoub | Film directed by Sergio Navarretta |
| scope=row | 2020 | Run Sweetheart Run | “First Lady” Dinah | |
| scope=row | 2021 | Gozer the Gozerian | Voice role; role shared with Olivia Wilde and Emma Portner[21] | |
| scope=row | 2023 | Renfield | Bellafrancesca Lobo | |
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2024 | Damsel | Dragon (voice) | [22] |
| Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps | the Wise Woman | |||
| The Alchemist | Filming[23] | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | 1990 | Matlock | Saleslady | Episode: "Nowhere to Turn" |
| scope=row | 1993 | Martin | Malika | Episode: "Jerome's in the House" |
| scope=row | 1994 | The Bold & The Beautiful | Greesa Abineer | Episode #1865 |
| scope=row | 2001 | Zereshk | 2 episodes | |
| scope=row | 2004 | Lila Ravan | Television film | |
| scope=row | 2005 | 24 | Dina Araz | 12 episodes: Day 4 Gold Derby TV Award for Best Drama Supporting Actress Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film |
| scope=row rowspan="4" | 2006 | Smith | Charlie | 7 episodes |
| Will & Grace | Pam | Episode: "Cowboys and Iranians" | ||
| Curious George | Hat Salesperson | Episode: "The Clean, Perfect Yellow Hat" | ||
| ER | Mrs. Riza Kardatay | Episode: "Lost in America" | ||
| scope=row | 2007 | Grey's Anatomy | Dr. Helen Crawford | Episode: "Scars and Souvenirs" |
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2008 | House of Saddam | Sajida Talfah | 4 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Nominated—Gold Derby TV Award for Best Miniseries/TV Movie Supporting Actress |
| Mina | Voice, episode: "MyPods and Boomsticks" | |||
| scope=row | 2009 | FlashForward | Nhadra Udaya | 3 episodes |
| scope=row rowspan="3" | 2011 | Detective Saliyah "Sunny" Qadri | Episode: "Dirty" | |
| House | Afsoun Hamidi | Episode: "Moving On" | ||
| NCIS | Mariam Bawali | Episode: "Safe Harbor" | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2012 | Portlandia | Nelofar Jamshidi | Episode: "Cool Wedding" |
| Dr. Lauren Baylor | 3 episodes | |||
| scope=row rowspan="1" | 2013 | Grimm | Stefania Vaduva Popescu | 7 episodes |
| scope=row rowspan="3" | 2014 | Believe | Mrs. Delkash | Episode: "Origin" |
| Bones | Azita Vaziri | Episode: "The Cold in the Case" | ||
| Scorpion | Dr. Cassandra Davis | Episode: "True Colors" | ||
| scope=row | 2015 | Elementary | Donya Esfandiari | Episode: "Tag, You're Me" |
| scope=row | 2015–2022 | Chrisjen Avasarala | Main role 6 seasons | |
| scope=row rowspan="1" | 2016 | Pearl | Arlene | TV film |
| scope=row rowspan="1" | 2017 | Farah Madani | 4 episodes | |
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2019 | Queen Janna | Voice, 4 episodes | |
| Impulse | Fatima | 3 episodes[24] [25] | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2021 | Arcane | Enforcer Grayson | Voice, 4 episodes |
| The Expanse: One Ship | Chrisjen Avasarala | Webisodes; 1 episode | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2022 | The Flight Attendant | Brenda | 5 episodes |
| Archer | ClandestiCon Host | Voice, episode: "The Big Con" | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2023 | Forouzan | Voice, 13 episodes | |
| Mrs. Davis | Virgin Mary | Episode: "Great Gatsby 2001: A Space Odyssey" | ||
| scope=row rowspan="3" | 2024 | Chad | Zahra | Episode: "Maman Bozorg" |
| WondLa | Darius | Voice, episode: "Chapter 4: Ghosts" | ||
| The Penguin | Nadia Maroni | Upcoming miniseries[26] |
| Year | Game | Voice role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | 2010 | Mass Effect 2 | Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay | |
| scope=row | 2012 | Mass Effect 3 | ||
| scope=row | 2014 | Destiny | Lakshmi-2/Maya Sundaresh | |
| scope=row | 2017 | Destiny 2 | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2022 | The Tale of Bistun | Narrator | |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | Roshan bint-La'Ahad | "Shared History" DLC | ||
| scope=row rowspan="2" | 2023 | Assassin's Creed Mirage | [27] | |
| Chrisjen Avasarala | [28] | |||
| scope=row | 2024 | Narrator | ||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | 2004 | Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia | Narrator | Audiobook | |
| scope=row | 2007 | The Blood of Flowers | Narrator | Audiobook | |
| 2008 | The Bible of Clay | Narrator | Audiobook | ||
| And the Mountains Echoed | Narrator | Audiobook | |||
| scope=row | 2016 | Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran | Narrator | Audiobook | |
| scope=row | 2019–2020 | The Two Princes | Queen Attosa | Audio drama |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | 1973 | A Narrow Road to the Deep North | Empress Jun | Edward Bond | |
| scope=row | 1975 | Madame de Sade | Reneé Marquise de Sade [29] | Yukio Mishima | |
| scope=row | 2012 | The House of Bernarda Alba | Bernarda Alba [30] | Federico Garcia Lorca | |
| scope=row | 2024 | What Became of Us | Q [31] | Shayan Lotfi |
In 1987, Aghdashloo married actor/playwright Houshang Touzie. They have a daughter, Tara Touzie, born in 1989.[32] [33]