Farzan Athari ( Persian: فرزان اطهری; born ) is a Swedish Iranian, TV host,

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

. He has worked in the fashion and entertainment industry in 23 different countries and collaborated with over 100 brands, he has also had leading roles in movies and hosted television shows.

Life and career

Athari was born in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. He resides in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

and has also lived in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...

. He has modeled for several well-known brands, including

Diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engi ...

Nivea Nivea (, stylized as NIVEA) is a German personal care brand that specializes in skin and body care. It is owned by the Hamburg-based company Beiersdorf Global AG. The company was founded on 28 March 1882, by Paul Carl Beiersdorf. In 1890, it w ...

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

and

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance bar, temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pembe ...

, as well as for publications such as '' GQ'' and ''

Men's Health ''Men's Health'' (''MH''), published by Hearst, is the world's largest men's magazine brand, with 35 editions in 59 countries. It is also the best-selling men's magazine on U.S. newsstands. Started as a men's health magazine by Rodale, Inc. ...

''. In 2006 he became the first International model to sign a modeling contract in Iran. He starred on a 2013 music video by

Haifa Wehbe Haifa Wehbe ( ar, هيفاء وهبي ) is a Lebanese- Egyptian singer and actress. She has released seven studio albums, and made her acting debut in the 2008 Pepsi-produced film ''Sea of Stars''. In 2006, Wehbe was on ''People Magazine''s 50 ...

, a well-known Lebanese singer and actress, which has been viewed over 20 million times on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. In 2016, Farzan Athari got into music himself just for fun and released his first single in Persian entitled Del Dele Irooniye on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active use ...

and

Radio Javan Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

. In 2017, Athari was in a TV commercial for

Betsson Betsson AB is a Swedish company that offers a number of online gambling products, such as casino, poker, bingo, sports betting and scratch cards through more than 20 online gaming brands including Betsson, Betsafe and NordicBet. Betsson AB is liste ...

together with

Måns Zelmerlöw Måns Petter Albert Sahlén Zelmerlöw (; born 13 June 1986) is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter and television presenter. He took part in ''Idol 2005'', eventually finishing fifth, won the first season of '' Let's Dance,'' and scored a hit wit ...

. In 2019, he had the role as Florian in the famous Swedish TV series My Perfect Family. He co-hosted the first season of '' Persia's Got Talent'', an Iranian franchise of the British television show ''

Got Talent ''Got Talent'' is a British talent show TV format conceived and owned by Simon Cowell's SYCOtv company. It has spawned spin-offs in over 69 countries, in what is now referred to as the 'Got Talent' format, similar to that described by Fremantl ...

'', produced in

in 2020/2021. This year he was the host of The Fire Festival with over 35 million TV viewers arranged by the Sweden's National Touring Theatre at Skansen in Stockholm. The program was also broadcast live on

and was shown several times on MBC. On live TV, he performed the song Together As One live on stage with the artist

Jasmine Kara Jasmine Karolina Kara Khatib-Nia (born 23 June 1988), known by her stage name Jasmine Kara, is a Swedish-Iranian singer, songwriter, and author. Her breakthrough came in the summer of 2010, when she sang in Allsång på Skansen and at a concert ...

. The song that was originally intended for the

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song C ...

was also released on

as Farzan Athari's first English / Persian song.

Controversy

In May 2013, Athari was arrested outside of the entrance of his apartment in the world's tallest building

Burj Khalifa The Burj Khalifa (; ar, برج خليفة, , Khalifa Tower), known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is known for being the world’s tallest building. With a total height ...

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...

. Athari was charged with drug possession with the intention to promote and got a life sentence in court. He almost got death penalty when two out three voted for death sentence. But after he created an online petiton where 65 000 people signed for justice in his case, his sentence got reduced to 10 years in appeal court. After an unchanged ruling for his sentence in supreme court, he came up with the idea to create a rap song, in which he asks

Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ( ar, محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم, links=no; ; born 15 July 1949) is the vice president, prime minister, and minister of defence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as the ruler of Dubai ...

, who is the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and ruler of the Emirate of Dubai for a pardon. He got a special pardon because of the rap-song after being in jail for almost 3 years. This has never happened before.Gulf News, "http://m.gulfnews.com/news/uae/courts/swedish-singer-model-pardoned-in-drug-case-after-plea-through-a-song-1.1635291"

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Athari, Farzan Swedish male models Iranian male models Swedish people of Iranian descent Male actors from Tehran Living people 1984 births