Nazanin Boniadi is an Iranian-born, Screen Actor’s Guild and AACTA Award-nominated actress and a renowned activist. Her TV and film credits most notably include How I Met Your Mother, Homeland, Counterpart, and Hotel Mumbai. She will be starring in Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings series.
Boniadi is an Amnesty International Ambassador and has partnered with the US arm of the non-profit since 2008 to campaign for the rights of disenfranchised populations across the world, with a focus on the unjust conviction and treatment of Iranian youth, women and prisoners of conscience.
She has been published in The Washington Post, CNN and the New York Times. Her advocacy has taken her to the German Bundestag, UK Parliament and US Capitol.
The Program for Torture Victims awarded Boniadi their 2014 City of Second Chances Award. In 2018, she was selected by People magazine as one of their 25 Women Changing the World. In 2020, she recieved the Freedom House Raising Awareness Award and was selected for membership by the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a recipient of the 2022 Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
