Amazon has finally announced the cast members for its upcoming series, an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings. The new series, which is set in Middle Earth, “will explore new storylines preceding” the Fellowship of the Ring.
Amazon’s cast of regulars throws up a few names that might not be familiar to everybody; one of those names is Nazanin Boniadi.
So, who is Nazanin Boniadi?
Nazanin is a British-Iranian actress who has appeared in both movies and television. She is also known as a defender of human rights. She is fluent in both English and Persian.
She was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1980, when that country was in the midst of the Islamic Revolution. A month after her birth, the family left for the UK. Raised in London, she moved to the United States when she was 19-years-old. Iran has allegedly declared her persona non grata, meaning she cannot return to her place of birth.
She is perhaps best known for her appearance as CIA analyst Fara Sherazi in the third and fourth seasons of Homeland. In this role, she shared a Guild Actors Award nomination in the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series category.
She also had a recurring role in How I Met Your Mother, where her character provided a love interest for Neil Patrick Harris’s Barney Stinson. She has also appeared in TV drama Scandal and Sci-fi thriller Counterpart.
As for movie roles, she has had a cameo in Iron Man (2008) but has also appeared in Hotel Mumbai (2018) and alongside Charlize Theron in Bombshell (2019).
Nazanin was a member of the Church of Scientology and was even touted as a possible bride for Tom Cruise back in the mid-2000s after she allegedly passed the Church’s strict vetting procedures for finding Tom a suitable life partner.
She is a vocal defender of human rights and has served as a spokesperson for Amnesty International. A look at her Twitter feed shows he takes a keen interest in politics.
We look forward to seeing her in The Lord of the Rings.
The other cast members announced were Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman.
Filming for The Lord of the Rings begins in New Zealand in February 2020, and no premiere date has been announced yet.