Fereshta Kazemi is an Afghan–born American film actress.

Early life

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Kazemi moved to the U.S. with her family. She was raised in New York and the California Bay Area. After high school, Kazemi won an acting and academic scholarship to

Marymount Manhattan College Marymount Manhattan College is a private college on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. As of 2020, enrollment consisted of 1,571 undergraduate students with women making up 80.1% and men 19.9% of student enrollment. Columbia University Masters ...

in NYC, where she studied acting and writing. Kazemi also earned a degree in Philosophy &

Cultural Anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term ...

from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

, Davis. She continued graduate acting and screenwriting studies at

Academy of Art University The Academy of Art University (AAU, or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. ...

and earned an MBA from

Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California, United States. Encompassing eleven colleges, the university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The school maintains its foundi ...

, emphasizing in Film Production.

Career

In 2009, Kazemi held a lead role in ''Heal'', a film about conflict in Afghanistan which has won over twenty international and domestic film festival awards, including winner of the Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Category at the San Diego Comic-Con International Film Festival (2011), winner of the Frank D. Capra award (2011), and the Humanitarian Award at the Cleveland International Film Festival (2011).Heal – Awards – IMDb
/ref> In 2014, Kazemi was the main character in ''Targeting'', a U.S.

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a Film genre, genre combining the thriller (genre), thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting ...

feature film playing a young Afghan immigrant wife in the U.S. Kazemi. In this film she performed the first on screen kiss for an Afghan actress and was called a "trailblazer" by NBC. Kazemi's work was photographed in a series by Pulitzer prize winning photographer

Carolyn Cole Carolyn Cole (born April 24, 1961) is a staff photographer for the'' Los Angeles Times''. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 2004 for her coverage of the siege of Monrovia in 2003, the capital of Liberia. Education Cole gradua ...

while in Afghanistan. In 2013, Fereshta played the leading role in ''The Icy Sun'', a film about rape in Afghanistan. NBC News said her film "breaks new ground for Afghanistan, where victims of rape can be forced to marry their attackers to preserve their families' honor". Kazemi is working on a documentary about Acting in Afghanistan. In 2013, she was awarded a Best Actress Award for her role in "The Icy Sun" at the "2nd Afghanistan Human Rights Film Festival".

References

External links

Finnbay Profile "Interview with Fereshta Kazemi, An Afghan Actor in Hollywood" (May 2014)

* [http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/america-tonight-blog/2014/1/13/afghan-actress-fereshtakazemitheicysun.html Al Jazeera America Profile: "Actress Shakes Up Afghan Cinema in Taboo Topics and Short Skirts" (Jan 2014)]
Al Jazeera English: "Film aims to break rape taboo" (Sept 11, 2013)

"Afghan Female Stars Defy the Clerics" (Aug 2013)

Khaama Press: "Afghan actress appears in first movie that openly deals with sexual violence" (Jan 2014)

Afghan Zariza: "I have pulled back some of the taboos around rape that hurt the hearts of Afghan women" (April 2014)

WUNC "The Story: Afghan Actress" Interviewed by Dick Gordon (Feb 22, 2013)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kazemi, Fereshta Afghan film actresses 1979 births Living people 21st-century Afghan actresses Entertainers from Kabul University of California, Davis alumni