Nazanin Boniadi

Nazanin Boniadi (Persian: نازنین بنیادی‎, IPA: [nɒːzæˈniːn bonjɒːˈdiː]; English: /ˈnɑːzəniːn boʊnˈjɑːdi/ NAH-zə-neen bon-YAH-dee; born 22 May 1980) is a British Iranian actress currently living and working in the United States.

Early life

Boniadi was born in Tehran, Iran. Her parents moved to London when she was an infant. She performed violin and ballet as a young girl.

She was educated at a private school and later moved to the US where she earned a Bachelor's Degree, with Honors, in Biological Sciences from the University of California Irvine. At UCI, she won the Chang Pin-Chun Undergraduate Research Award for molecular research involving cancer treatment and heart transplant rejection. She was also Assistant Editor-in-Chief of MedTimes, UCI's undergraduate medical newspaper.

Career

Boniadi's first major acting role was as Leyla Mir on the Emmy Award-winning daytime drama General Hospital and its SOAPnet spin-off series General Hospital: Night Shift, making her the first contract actor to play a Middle Eastern character in American daytime television history. She is also the first Iranian-born actress to ever be on contract on an American soap opera.

She was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series in 2008 for her role in General Hospital.

Her General Hospital character died from exposure to a biotoxin in February 2009.

Boniadi has also landed supporting roles in several major Hollywood film productions, such as Charlie Wilson's War directed by Mike Nichols, Iron Man directed by Jon Favreau, and The Next Three Days directed by Paul Haggis.

In February 2011, she debuted as Nora, a love interest for Neil Patrick Harris's character Barney Stinson, on the sixth season of the hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.^[6] She reprised this role during the show's seventh season.

In November 2011, Boniadi appeared opposite George Clooney in a European spot for Nespresso, called The Swap, directed by Grant Heslov.

Activism

Boniadi is an Official Spokesperson for Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), and has worked at a grassroots level and appeared on 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 prisoners of conscience.

Boniadi provided a voiceover to AIUSA’s “Power of Words” public service announcement with Morgan Freeman, which won a Webby Award; campaigned with the organization for the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA); has served as a panelist and emcee for events related to Iranian rights, and spearheaded The Neda Project with AIUSA in May/June 2010. She has an official blog on the Amnesty International USA website.

In December 2010, she initiated an Amnesty International petition for Iranian film directors Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, who were convicted of “propaganda against the state”. The petition was co-signed by prominent Hollywood directors and industry leaders such as Paul Haggis, Martin Scorsese, Sean Penn, Harvey Weinstein, Ron Howard and others, and generated over 21,000 signatures. On June 8, 2011, Boniadi joined a delegation of Hollywood luminaries, lead by Haggis and AIUSA Executive Director Larry Cox, to deliver the petition to the Iran Mission to the United Nations in New York.

On June 3, 2011, Boniadi joined Sarah Shourd in a rolling hunger strike in solidarity with Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal and wrote an article in support of the Free The Hikers campaign.

 On July 11, 2011, Boniadi received the Social Cinema Award at the Ischia Global Film & Music Festival for her human rights work with Amnesty International.

On April 9, 2012, she returned to her alma mater University of California, Irvine, with Rainn Wilson in support of the Education Under Fire campaign, calling for an end to discrimination against and persecution of Baha'is in Iran.

Personal Life

In September 2012, Vanity Fair magazine broke a story alleging that Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, headed a secretive mission to find a suitable Scientologist girlfriend for Tom Cruise. Boniadi was allegedly selected in this process, and she and Cruise were romantically involved from November 2004 until January 2005, during which time Boniadi lived with Cruise. Upon ending the relationship with Boniadi, Cruise allegedly sent her away to the Scientology mecca in Clearwater, Florida, where Boniadi was later punished for telling a friend about her ordeal. Oscar-winning writer/director Paul Haggis issued a statement confirming that Boniadi had indeed been used in this way by the Church of Scientology.