Azita Ghanizada

Azita Ghanizada (born November 17, 1979) is an American actress.

Azita Ghanizada
Born	Azita Ghanizada November 17, 1979 Kabul, Afghanistan
Citizenship	United States
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2004–present

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.[1] 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.[1] In the Laura Neri film A Kiss on the Nose, Ghanizada played the lead role of Chiara, a performance for which she received a film festival best actress nomination. A few of her notable television guest-starring roles include How I Met Your Mother, Entourage, Veronica Mars, The Mentalist , Bones, Psych, Ghost Whisperer, Castle, and Up All Night.

In 2008, Ghanizada joined the cast of the General Hospital prime-time spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift for season 2 as Dr. Saira Batra, a specialist in holistic medicine.[2] In 2009, Ghanizada appeared HBO's Entourage (season 6, episode 2) and joined the cast of the television pilot Tough Trade starring 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.[3] Alphas was picked up to series in 2011, but only lasted two seasons. In 2014, she filmed the comedy pilot Ellen More or Less for NBC directed by Peyton Reed. In 2019 she recurred on "Ballers" and "Good Trouble" as Kendra Zahir.

In 2016, Ghanizada 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.[4] Her latest slate of features include a small role in Gabriela Cowperthwaite's "Our Friend," as well as the comedy feature "We Broke Up."

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.[5] In 2018, MAAC presented the first ever study on MENA performers on PrimeTime TV [6] She actively speaks on representation and inclusion issues in the media, on social media, in business environments and on industry panels.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	A Kiss on the Nose	Chiara	Short film
2007	X's & O's	Anita
2009	Why Men Go Gay in L.A.
2010	You, Only Better...	Kali Parker
2011	Blood Shot	Zahra
2016	Complete Unknown	Ramina
2020	Our Friend	Elizabeth
2021	Killroy Was Here[4]	Sarah

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	The Closer	Neighbor	Episode: "Batter Up"
2006	Numb3rs	Prita	Episode: "Harvest"
2007	Bones	Girlfriend	Episode: "The Man in the Mansion"
2007	The Wedding Bells	Jody	Episode: "Wedding from Hell"
2007	Veronica Mars	Amira Krimani	Episode: "Un-American Graffiti"
2008	General Hospital: Night Shift	Dr. Saira Batra	14 episodes
2009	How I Met Your Mother	Sexy Female Cop	Episode: "As Fast as She Can"
2009	Entourage	Kelly	Episode: "Amongst Friends"
2009	Psych	Mina	Episode: "Bollywood Homicide"
2009	Ghost Whisperer	Charee	Episode: "Devil's Bargain"
2010	Tough Trade	Sabina	TV movie
2010	Castle	Mistress Sapphire	Episode: "The Mistress Always Spanks Twice"
2010	NCIS: Los Angeles	Rochelle Stanton	Episode: "Disorder"
2011	Friends with Benefits	Tasi	Episode: "The Benefit of Full Disclosure"
2011–2012	Alphas	Rachel Pirzad	Main role
2012	Body of Proof	Annabelle Kip	Episode: "Cold Blooded"
2012	Up All Night	Natasha	Episode: "The Game of Life"
2013	The Mentalist	Defiance	Episode: "Green Thumb"
2014	Major Crimes	Angela Soames	Episode: "Frozen Assets"
2014	Ellen More or Less	Lucy	Pilot
2016	I Love Dick	Sahar	Episode: "Cowboys and Nomads"
2017	Wisdom of the Crowd	Tanya	Episode: "User Bias"
2018	9-1-1	Kelly Wesson	Episode: "Let Go"
2018	Elementary	Dr. Sepi Chamanara	Episode: "The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out"

References

1. Grundey, Adam (2011-05-01). "Azita Ghanizada's Rise to Alpha Female". Rolling Stone Middle East. Archived from the original on March 24, 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
2. Krystal, Becky (2008-10-05). "At This Hospital, Virginia Doctors Are In". The Washington Post. Washington DC: WPC. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 26 July 2011. Ghanizada, 29
3. Radish, Christina (2011-07-08). "Azita Ghanizada Interview ALPHAS". Collider. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
4. McNary, Dave (June 15, 2017). "Kevin Smith Filming Horror Movie 'Killroy Was Here' at Florida College". Variety. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
5. "How Azita Ghanizada has fought for recognition for Mena actors in Hollywood". The National. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
6. Ramos, Dino-Ray (10 September 2018). "Study Shows Bleak Middle Eastern & North African Representation, Reinforced Stereotypes On Primetime TV". Deadline.com. Retrieved 15 June 2019.

External links

• Azita Ghanizada at IMDb