- Sarah Shahi, professionally known as Aahoo Jahansouzshahi
- Shahi has stressed the importance of embracing and appreciating her Middle Eastern roots.
- She and other Middle Eastern actresses discussed the necessity of embracing one’s identity in the film and television industries in an interview with ELLE magazine.
Sarah Shahi, professionally known as Aahoo Jahansouzshahi, is a Persian-American actress who was born in Texas to Persian parents. Shahi has stressed the importance of embracing and appreciating her Middle Eastern roots. She and other Middle Eastern actresses discussed the necessity of embracing one’s identity in the film and television industries in an interview with ELLE magazine.
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Sarah Shahi’s parents remain.
Shahi was born on January 10, 1980, in Euless, Texas, to parents Abbas Jahansouzshahi and Mahmonir Soroushazar.
Aahoo Jahansouzshahi, which means gazelle in Persian, was her given name.
Later, in second grade, she changed her name to Sarah after hearing a song
named ‘Sarah,’ because other children teased her about her birth name.
Her father is Iranian, and her father’s family fled the country two years before the Iranian Revolution.
When the last Shah’s regime fell in 1979, Jahansouzshahi,
who worked at the American embassy in Iran, was sentenced to death but managed to flee.
Similarly, Shahi’s mother, Soroushazar, was born in Spain to an Iranian father and a Spanish mother.
The actress has an elder brother named Cyrus and a younger sister named Samantha,
both of whom are working in the entertainment profession.
She went to Trinity High School and was captain of the volleyball and basketball teams.
earned a bachelor’s degree in English and theater from Southern Methodist University.
She had never cheered before, but she joined the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders team from
1999 to 2000 in the hopes of becoming an actor. She eventually moved to Los Angeles.
Sarah Shahi’s ethnicity and roots are investigated.
Shahi is of the Iranian race. According to the Focus, her parents are descendants
of the Qajar Dynasty’s Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, who ruled Iran from 1797 to 1834.
She has emphasized the necessity of accepting and celebrating her Middle Eastern background.
In an interview with ELLE magazine, the diva and other Middle Eastern actors
highlighted the importance of embracing one’s individuality in the film and television industries.
“I spent my entire life pretending that I was white, and it wasn’t really until I arrived to L.A.
that I started realizing how everybody kind of looked the same,
that they were basically cookie-cutter versions of each other, and I really started to accept my uniqueness,” she added.
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The Sex/Life star has also remarked that she would like to play a Persian character
or be hired in a film where she could express her heritage, but she is repeatedly told, “Well, you are not Middle Eastern enough.”
Shahi highlighted her dissatisfaction with the portrayal of several of her characters as the all-American girl.
She is hopeful that Warner Bros.’ DC Extended Universe film Black Adam
will help to dispel Middle Eastern myths on the big screen.
She told a Hollywood reporter that because there aren’t many Middle Eastern portrayals in movies and TV,
being a part of this one allows her to make a statement about her origin and culture.
