Atreyee Poddar
Golshifteh Farahani has starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Driver, and Russell Crowe, headlined festival hits and blockbusters alike, and has become one of the most known faces to emerge from Iranian cinema to Hollywood. Here's a little introduction to the actress behind the name.
Golshifteh, meaning ‘loving flower’, was a name her father invented just for her; her actual legal name, Rahavard, translates to ‘gift of the road’. She was performing in theatre by age six and landed her first film role — the lead in The Pear Tree — at just 14, walking away with a Best Actress win at the Fajr International Film Festival.
In 2008, Golshifteh appeared in Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies — becoming the first Iranian actor to star in a major Hollywood production since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It was a landmark moment, but Iranian authorities took issue with her appearing without a hijab, viewing it as a breach of Islamic law. She was barred from working in Iran and ultimately went into exile, settling in Paris.
Since Body of Lies, she has appeared in Rosewater (2014) and Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), Paterson (2016), Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), and Extraction (2020). She recently starred in Alpha (2025), directed by Palme d'Or winner Julia Ducournau.
Before she was ever in front of a camera, Golshifteh was at the piano. She started studying music at age five and went on to attend a music school in Tehran, She still sings and plays multiple instruments today.
Golshifteh has publicly backed the protests that followed Mahsa Amini’s death in 2022. That advocacy has continued into 2026. She’s spoken out against internet blackouts in Iran, calling them a tool of repression, and has described the country as being engulfed in fresh unrest after decades of resistance.