10 THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT
BRAINY beauty Nazanin Boniadi stars in the new fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. But before taking the role of village healer Bronwyn, which was created specifically for the show, Nazanin, 42, kicked off her acting career in daytime soaps, appearing on General Hospital and its spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift between 2007 and 2009. Here are ten things you don’t know about the Persian performer.
1
She was only 20 days old when her parents fled Tehran in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution and settled in England.
2
She is a great-greatgranddaughter of acclaimed 19th century philosopher and poet Hajj Mirza Hasan Isfahani.
3
Raised in London, she studied violin and ballet as a child.
4
While attending University of California, Irvine, she won a prestigious award for her molecular research involving cancer treatment and heart transplant rejection.
5
A former Scientologist, she hasn’t publicly discussed her time in the controversial church — or her rumored threemonth romance with the religion’s poster boy Tom Cruise. She now calls herself a “non-practicing Muslim.”
6
Nazanin was an Amnesty International representative from 2009 to 2015 focusing on Iran’s treatment of youth, women and political prisoners.
When she joined General Hospital as Leyla Mir, she was the first contract actor to play a Middle Eastern character in American daytime TV history.
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She says her role as Esther in the 2016 Ben-Hur remake fulfilled a lifelong dream to shoot a film set in ancient times.
9
She hasn’t lived in Iran since leaving as an infant — but is fluent in both English and Farsi.
She says her Lord of the Rings character is “inspired by the brave women of my homeland Iran who risk everything for a better tomorrow.”