Shohreh Aghdashloo: The woman who carried her voice across the world 

Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo left Iran during the 1979 revolution with only hope and determination. Decades later, her powerful performances and unmistakable voice have earned her recognition across Hollywood. 

Today, Shohreh Aghdashloo continues to play major roles across film, television, and voice acting. In 2024, she appeared in high-profile projects such as Deadly Vows, The Penguin, Netflix’s Damsel, Man and Witch: The Dance of a thousand Steps, and DC’s Creature Commandos. Her acting continues into 2025 with her role as Elaida in The Wheel of Time. 

But before becoming one of Hollywood’s most respected Middle Eastern actresses , Aghdashloo built her foundation in Iran’s 1970s cinema, starring in films like Chess of the Wind (1976), Desiderium (1978), and working with acclaimed director Abbas Kiarostami’s film called The Report (1977).  

After the 1979 Islamic revolution, her films were banned, and she faced political backlash that forced her to leave her home country.  

Starting over in the U.S. wasn’t easy, she faced rejection, cultural barriers, but eventually found success with her Oscar-nominated role in House of Sand and Fog. Today she continues to speak out about women’s rights and Middle Eastern representation in film and television as she explained in an interview with The Bare Magazine in 2025, “I try to support the Iranian people by amplifying their voices, by speaking out against injustice, by bringing awareness to their struggles.”  

Shohreh Aghdashloo is still remembered for her powerful roles and her inspiring voice. She’s one of the first Iranian women to make a name for herself in Hollywood, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and her role as Nadi Behrani a mother torn between pride and survival in House of Sand and Fog (2003). 

Later, she reached new fans through her role as Chrisjen Avasarala in The Expanse, where she played a smart, powerful, and outspoken U.N. leader who isn’t afraid to stand her ground, a kind of role that Middle Eastern women rarely get to play in Hollywood. In an interview with HGL Shohreh Aghdashloo described her role as Chrisjen Avasarala in The Expanse a “badge of honor”, This was also her first lead role on American television as a foreign actor. 

In the 1970s, at age 20, she achieved nationwide stardom in her homeland of Iran, starring in some prominent pictures such as The Report (1977) directed by the renowned Abbas Kiarostami, which won critics awards at the Moscow Film Festival. “DirectorAbbas Kiarostami changed my future,” she told , “He came to see one of the plays I was in and said, “You are going to be in my film.” It was his first feature, The Report. 
 
In an interview with Film Festival Traveler, Aghdashloo credits Kiarostami with teaching her a lot about acting. “First and foremost, the most important thing he taught me was not to act,” she said. “Because I was coming from stage and I intend to act, he said, ‘You know what, just deliver the words.’ I still remember that.”  

In 1978, she won wider acclaim and established herself as one of Iran’s leading ladies with Desiderium (1978) directed by Ali Hatami.  

Her talent quickly made her one of Iran’s most promising young actresses, but after the 1979 Islamic republic Revolution, Aghdashloo’s films The Report and Desiderium were banned, because women in Iran faced new restrictions in the arts, and those films showed women without hijab and reflected the social values of a freer time. These films no longer matched the new cultural rules, and the new regime would not accept such a thing, so they were taken out of public screenings.  

According to Film Festival Traveler interview, she explained that she left Iran because “Being familiar with Islam from her grandmother, who was a pious woman, but not a fanatic by any means, I knew with its doctrine that there was no place for me in that society.”  

She eventually immigrated to the United States. In an interview with Daily Beast in 2013 about her book, The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines, she talked honestly about her life, and said, “It’s about finding strength when you lose everything, leaving Iran, learning a new language, and starting over.” 

When Shohreh arrived in Hollywood, she faced new challenges that came from stereotypes about her accent and Middle Eastern background. Instead of giving up, she has explained in interviews that these biases forced her to work harder to prove her talent and earn meaningful and complex roles. 

After years of small roles and endless auditions, Shohreh Aghdashloo finally found her moment in House of Sand and Fog (2003). She played Nadi Behrani, the wife of an Iranian colonel who moves his family to the United States after the revolution. Nadi is a quiet, kind, and loyal woman who tries to keep peace in her family even when her husband’s decisions lead to tragedy. Through her gentle voice and emotional expressions, Aghdashloo shows Nadi’s pain, dignity, and strength.  

Her performance made the character deeply human, earning her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and also nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. 

In a 2004 CBS News interview, Aghdashloo explained how deeply she connected to her character Nadi Behrani “All throughout my life, I had witnessed women like Nadi” she said. “And as an actress, when I read the book, I wished that one day it would turn into a film, and I wished that I would be able to play her after all.” 

After that, many popular Magazines and individuals started to praise her because of her performance, like Variety magazine described her portrayal as “beautifully restrained and profoundly moving,” highlighting how Aghdashloo gave the film much of its emotional depth and authenticity. And also the Washington Post, wrote Shohreh Aghdashloo, as Behrani’s wife, Nadi, … finally receiving deserved recognition in this country. Her portrayal of a woman at once haughty and vulnerable, chilly and kind, is easily the most revelatory in a film graced by complex, deeply textured characterizations.” 

For many years, Shohreh Aghdashloo was offered and often turned down stereotypical roles for Middle Eastern actresses. Such as “downtrodden” or “terrorist” characters. For example she had an early rejection, described in a 2016 interview with Deadline. A casting director told her, “We’re looking for a downtrodden Middle Eastern woman. You’re too beautiful. Go home.”  

Since then, as she had shown earlier in The Expanse, Aghdashloo continued to take on roles that challenged stereotypes and showed strong, intelligent women. She appeared in the TV series 24, as Dina Araz, the wife of a terrorist and the mother of a teenage boy. Her character was caught between loyalty to her husband and love for her son, which made her both powerful and deeply human. And in The Stoning of Soraya M., Aghdashloo played Zahra, a brave and caring woman who tells a journalist the heartbreaking story of her niece’s death. Zahra’s courage and anger show how hard it is for women to speak out against injustice. Aghdashloo’s performance feels real and emotional, and she becomes the voice of all the women who were never heard. 

Aghdashloo has continued to choose stories that revealed truth and humanity, even when they were uncomfortable, bringing strength and depth to every character she plays. She became the voice of the dragon in the Film Damsel starring Millie Bobby Brown.  

For many fans, especially Middle Eastern woman, Aghdashloo’s work has become a sign of strength and visibility, showing that women from her background can also be seen and heard in Hollywood. 

Outside of Hollywood, Shohreh Aghdashloo has also used her voice to support women’s rights and Iranian activists and speak about injustice. She’s spoken at events, and interviews around the world like Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Rallies, or Iranian American Women Foundation (IAWF). in her 2023 interview with The Eden Magazine, she described the courage of Iranian women during the recent protests, saying, “ The women of Iran are far more educated, stronger, brave, and active than we have seen in the news coming out of Iran. The brave Iranians have decided they will no longer bear this religious tyranny.” She also spoke on Meghan Markle’s Archetypes podcast about why activism matters to her, explaining that women who speak up are often judged unfairly but must continue anyway. Together, her interviews show how she connects her public platform to advocating for women’s rights and sharing the truth about what is happening in Iran. 

The newest award that Shohreh Aghdashloo received is the lifetime Achievement Award at the Septimius award, which took place on September 4, 2025 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. for her distinguished career and powerful performances in film and television, including her Emmy-winning role in House of Saddam and Academy Award-nominated role in House of Sand and Fog. The award also recognized her advocacy for diversity and underrepresented voices in Hollywood.   

For so many young girls from Iran and beyond, she’s more than a celebrity; she’s someone who shows that you can be strong, kind, and still stay true to where you came from. 

Shohreh Aghdashloo’s life shows what it really means to never give up. From Tehran’s small theaters to Hollywood’s biggest screens, Shohreh Aghdashloo has built a life defined by courage and compassion. “You can’t change the world in a day,” she has said. “But you can change someone’s day and that’s a start.” 

Cover Image: Apex Photo Studios