گلشیفته فراهانی

Golshifteh Farahani, born July 10, 1983 in Tehran, is a Crystal-Simorgh winning Iranian actress and pianist. She is the daughter of actor/theater director Behzad Farahani and sister of actress Shaghayegh Farahani. She started studying music and playing the piano at age of five. At 12, she entered a music school in Tehran. At 14, Golshifteh was cast as the lead in Dariush Mehrjui's The Pear Tree for which she won an award. Since then she has acted in 18 films, many of which have received international awards.

Subsequent to her involvement in the U.S. film Body of Lies (2008, Directed by Ridley Scott, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe), she was reportedly prevented by Iranian authorities from leaving Iran. As her last acting experience in Iran, she appeared in About Elly directed by Asghar Farhadi. The film has been selected at the Tribeca Film Festival and won a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

She now lives in Paris, France, and has spoken against human rights violations in Iran, particularly against women. In Iran, Golshifteh was part of an underground rock band named "Kooch Neshin" (Nomads) which won the 2nd Tehran Avenue underground rock competition. Since leaving Iran, Golshifteh has been able to continue her music career as well. She has teamed up with another exiled Iranian musician Mohsen Namjoo. Their new album Oy (Akh in Persian) was implicitly critical of the Iranian government and released in October 2009 during an international tour that started in Italy (Milan and Venice).