Nazanin Boniadi
Actress Nazanin Boniadi is rapidly making her mark in both film and television, garnering praise in both the industry and media. This young starlet recently appeared as reporter Amira Ahmed in the 2008 Marvel blockbuster Iron Man, directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr. She was also handpicked by industry icon and Academy Award®-winning director, Mike Nichols, for a part in the 2007 feature film Charlie Wilson's War, starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.
On the small screen Nazanin is currently portraying Nurse Leyla Mir on ABC's Emmy Award®-winning, General Hospital, for which she received a 2008 NAACP Image Award Nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series. Nazanin won the coveted role of Leyla in a competitive audition process after the producers had seen several hundred actresses. She first originated the role as a series regular on season one of SOAPnet's #1 rated primetime drama, General Hospital: Night Shift, in 2007.
Nazanin is credited as being the first actor in a contract role to portray an Iranian character in U.S. daytime history, an accomplishment which she hopes will help shape our social consciousness by promoting understanding.
Nazanin was able to showcase her comedic timing in her recurring role as Josie, Drew Sidora's overly interfering publicist, on the CW sit-com The Game. She has also appeared in several independent projects with new and gifted members of the entertainment community, including the Zachary Levi starrer Shades of Ray, and a lead role in Gameface, James Rhodimer's directorial debut.
Nazanin's diverse background has afforded her a versatility that has not only made her one of the most sought after Middle Eastern actresses in Hollywood, but has also allowed her to play a variety of other ethnicities, including Latin, Indian and Caucasian.
Born in Tehran at the height of the Iranian Revolution, her parents relocated to London shortly thereafter, where Nazanin was raised with an emphasis on education. By the age of ten her passion for the arts was already in full bloom when she received a merit from the Royal College of Music for her violin virtuosity, a certificate in ballet from the Vaccani School of Dance, and won the British "Yamaha Electone Festival" for her vibrant proficiency on the electric organ. After appearing in numerous high school productions, Nazanin earned her first TV credit hosting the UK's then popular children's TV show Early Bird.
Determined to rebuild the lifestyle her parents once enjoyed in their homeland, Nazanin decided to put her artistic dreams aside and instead focused on achieving a more "stable" and "secure" life as a physician. Nazanin moved to the United States to attend the University of California Irvine, where she won the competitive "Chang Pin Chun" Undergraduate Research Award (for her work in heart-transplant rejection and cancer research), and earned her Bachelor's Degree, with Honors, in Biological Sciences. Equipped with the confidence that she is capable of succeeding at anything she sets her mind to, Nazanin was no longer daunted by the prospect of pursuing her true calling- the performing arts.
Ever an artist, the sophisticated newcomer decided to immerse herself in the art of acting and test the highly competitive waters of Tinseltown. She promptly undertook its formidable auditioning process, at which she excelled, grabbing the attention of some of Hollywood's most respected casting directors, producers and directors. As the Executive Producer of Iron Man, Peter Billingsley, put it:
"It was so obvious from the moment we all met her on Iron Man, Nazanin is a natural talent with a very bright future. Her star will only continue to rise."
Fluent in both English and Farsi, Nazanin's language skills, as well as her ability to effortlessly transition between authentic British, American and various Middle Eastern accents, have given her a universal appeal, allowing her to carve a niche in the industry all her own.
As a devoted human rights activist, Nazanin has worked at a grassroots level and has also appeared on numerous international TV and radio programs to campaign for the rights of disenfranchised populations across the world.
In particular, she has been very involved in safeguarding human rights by participating in events that bring attention to the unjust conviction and treatment of Iranian youth, women and prisoner's of conscience. She has met with political leaders, worked closely with prominent human rights attorneys and endorsed human rights petitions to the United Nations. She also makes appearances and speaks at forums sponsored by various human rights organizations.
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Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
The United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), proposed by Eleanor Roosevelt and adopted by the United Nations in 1948 established 30 articles of universal Human Rights. This document establishes and protects the framework for civilized and respectful interaction between all people and nations no matter what their political, religious or cultural beliefs. Over 190 nations have ratified this declaration; and yet surveys show that more people can name 3 members of the Homer Simpson TV Cartoon family than they can name three of their basic human rights. You can’t defend what you do not know.
At a time when we see women being stoned to death, child executions, people starving in the Eastern Sudan, children being stolen from their families and made into child-soldiers or prostitutes, prisoners being water-boarded, millions of people starving and dying of AIDS each year – we have to ask: what can human rights education do? My answer is everything. It’s where it all begins.
A friend once told me a story I will never forget. In the early 1960’s there was a young black boy in Mississippi, a sharecropper’s son. He went to school in a one-room, tattered schoolhouse. One morning, sitting by himself, he opened a third-hand, torn Civics text book. He read a page – The United States Bill of Rights. He read it again. He looked around and what he saw were white only schools, white only restrooms, and “sit on the back of the bus”. It didn’t make sense. And at that single moment, education, as it does for all of us, made that young Black boy more aware – and he decided to do something about it. His name was Martin Luther King Jr., and the rest is history.
Nelson Mandela said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can learn to love.”
Human rights violations know no borders. From child soldiers in the Congo, ethnic cleansing in Darfur, to the rise in human trafficking right here in the US, it is easy to see that the whole world needs to change.
By knowing all 30 Articles of the UDHR we can be equipped with the knowledge to fight against any injustice anywhere in the world. On this 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration, with all the turmoil that currently exists in the world, it has become more important than ever for people to know their rights, to pass them onto others, and to defend them relentlessly.
The solution to global issues such as poverty, famine, war and political unrest is encompassed by the UDHR, and human rights education is the first step in resolving these issues at a grassroots level.
I hope to see the day when human rights education becomes a mandatory part of every middle school curriculum on every continent across the world, so that every man, woman and child knows and can defend their God-given rights.
Tags: 60th Anniversary, amnesty international, child prostitution, child soldiers, Children's Rights, education, Eleanor Roosevelt, ethnic cleansing, famine, HIV/AIDS, human rights, human trafficking, poverty, Sudan, Sudan human rights, torture, UDHR, UN, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, war
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