Shohreh Aghdashloo

She won the Best Supporting Actress in a TV Mini-Series or Movie award at the 2009 Emmy Awards for her performance as Sajida in the HBO mini-series House of Saddam.

In 2008, she was a member of the honorary board at The Black & White Gala, a star-studded event focusing on raising funds for the Barack Obama election campaign.

She won four awards for her work in the movie House Of Sand And Fog.

She has a brother named Shahryar, who is a doctor.

Shohreh is a popular name for Persian women, meaning "famous girl" in Farsi language.

She is the first and only Iranian actress to crossover into mainstream Hollywood cinema.

She did her first nude scene at the age of 36, in the movie Guests of Hotel Astoria.

1989's Guests of Hotel Astoria was her first movie outside Iran.

She is the first Iranian and Middle Eastern actress to be nominated for an Oscar.

In the 1970s, at age 20 she achieved nationwide stardom in her homeland Iran starring in some prominent pictures such as "The Report" directed by the renowed Abbass Kiarostami which won critics awards at the Moscow Film Festival.

She is the narrator of the audio version of the book Inside the Kingdom: My Life In Saudi Arabia by Carmen Bin Laden.

She is an active protester and regularly speaks out against the social injustice in Iran.

The producers of the film House of Sand and Fog actively sought out an unknown Iranian actress for the role of Nadi, wife to Ben Kingsley's character Behrani, and Shohreh was one of the first actresses to audition for the role.

Her frustration at the lack of acting roles in Hollywood for Iranian women led her to take a role in the film America So Beautiful, where she portrayed an actress desperate for a star-making role. Two years after appearing in the film, she starred in House of Sand and Fog, which propelled her to notoriety in the acting business.

Her favorite acting style is comedy and has only recently been able to show off her comedic talents, with a guest spot on sitcom Will & Grace and a supporting role in the comedy movie American Dreamz.

On March 23 2006, she appeared in two vastly different roles on two different NBC shows. First she played a lazy Iranian employee of Grace's in the comedy series Will & Grace and then a grieving mother on medical drama ER.

She has had rhinoplasty.

She is a regular performer in her husband's theater plays.

She was cast as a CIA agent in an ABC drama pilot in 2004 entitled The Secret Service. It co-starred Sarah Wayne Callies, Justin Chambers and Mykelti Williamson. Unfortunately, the pilot was not picked up.

She came under fire from the Muslim/Iranian community after accepting a role as part of a terrorist family on Fox's 24. Shohreh was unfazed by the criticism, claiming she took on the role as Dina Araz wasn't a straight-forward evil character, as she had some remorse for the situation she was in and was a caring mother to her son.

Filmed a role in the 2005 sci-fi movie Serenity, which was ultimately left on the cutting room floor.

She won a Best Supporting Actress award for House of Sand and Fog at the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards.

She was married to Iranian artist Aydin Aghdashloo in 1972. They divorced in 1980.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1987 but struggled to find work, getting her big break in 2003 with the movie House of Sand and Fog.

She has a daughter, Tara.

She studied International Relations in England.

In both 24 and the film House of Sand and Fog, her son was played by actor Jonathan Ahdout.

She is married to actor Houshang Touzie.

She was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2004 for her role as Nadi Behrani in House of Sand and Fog.