Once Aghdashloo arrived in England, she earned a bachelor's degree in international relations at Brunel University because of her interest in politics after having to leave her home country. They did not have children and were divorced in 1979, when she left Iran for England at the start of the Iranian Revolution.
She had always wanted to be an actress, and soon began playing leading roles in Iranian theatre and film. After their marriage in 1972 when she was 19 and he was 31, she began attending theatre workshops, against the wishes of her family. Her stage name is from the family name of her first husband, painter Aydin Aghdashloo. She has three brothers: Shahram, Shahriar and Shahrokh. Īghdashloo was born in Tehran, Iran, as Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar ( Persian: شهره وزیریتبار), the daughter of Effie ( née al-Sadat) and Anushiravan Vaziri-Tabar. In 2013, she released her autobiography titled The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines.
She has continued to play supporting and character roles in film and television, including a starring role as Chrisjen Avasarala on The Expanse (2015–present), and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her work in the HBO original miniseries House of Saddam (2008).
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. Both films were banned in her home country but, in 1978, Aghdashloo won acclaim for her performance in Sooteh Delan (Broken-hearted), directed by Ali Hatami, which established her as one of Iran's leading actresses.Īfter establishing a theatre and film career in Iran, Aghdashloo moved to England during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, subsequently becoming a U.S. Her next film was Shatranje Bad ( The Chess Game of the Wind), directed by Mohammad Reza Aslani, which screened at several film festivals. Following numerous starring roles on the stage, her first major film role was in The Report (Gozāresh) (1977) directed by Abbas Kiarostami, which won the Critics Award at the Moscow Film Festival. Shohreh Aghdashloo ( Persian: شهره آغداشلو, pronounced born Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar ( شهره وزیریتبار) May 11, 1952) is an Iranian-American actress.