Shohreh Aghdashloo

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Celebrity
Arts / Music / Drama
Women's Issues

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Shohreh Aghdashloo

Academy Award-nominated actress -- House of Sand and Fog

    In House of Sand and Fog, the Oscar-nominated film directed by Vadim Perelman, Iranian-born actress Shohreh Aghdashloo plays a woman without country, without agency, without voice. The tragic film revolves around a lower-middle-class Iranian immigrant family in conflict with a down-and-out young American woman; Aghdashloo provides the delicate fulcrum on which the hostility of House of Sand and Fog is balanced. Her serene, subtle and heartbreaking performance earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

    Her powerless character in the film is a struggle familiar to Aghdashloo, who made her screen debut in celebrated director Abbas Kiarostami’s 1977 film The Report — a movie that remains banned in Iran. She fled Iran during the 1978-79 revolution, driving across Europe to settle in London, at the peak of her early acting career. Her name was banned in Iran until recently, and she is still not allowed to return.

    Eventually moving to Los Angeles with her second husband, a playwright, Aghdashloo has been socially active in raising awareness of women’s issues, especially in Iran, where the Islamic government has repressed women for decades. She brings her riveting story and passionate beliefs to the podium to discuss her amazing life, the future of Iran and women’s concerns.

    Born into an untraditional family in Tehran, Aghdashloo always wanted to be an actress. She went to the Drama Workshop of Tehran and starred in two major films before fleeing the country.

    In London, Aghdashloo studied international relations and politics, virtually abandoning acting. After moving to Los Angeles, she and her playwright husband founded a theatrical company that tours with Iranian plays. Casting directors for House of Sand and Fog approached her to appear in the film, finding in her the still center (“dignity, integrity and saving face in a most beautiful way,” as she puts it) the intense movie requires.
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