Navíd Akhavan

Navíd Akhavan — Biography

Navíd Akhavan was born on 9 June 1980 in Tehran. Amid the Iran-Iraq War, he fled the country with his family at age four and, after a brief spell in the United States, settled with them in Germany in 1985. Raised speaking English, German, and Persian, he was drawn to performing early through his father's work as a concert organizer, first appearing on stage at eight.

After finishing training in 2001 at the Schauspiel Zentrum performing-arts school in Cologne, he moved into film, television, and theatre, taking the part of Romeo in a staging of Romeo and Juliet at Hamburg's Altonaer Theater. His portrayal of Yunes in the 2003 drama Fremder Freund brought him a Best Actor nomination at the Munich Film Festival, and the picture went on to win the First Steps Award and the audience prize at the Filmz festival in Mainz. He later took leads in Ali Samadi Ahadi's comedies Salami Aleikum and 45 Minutes to Ramallah, in Arash T. Riahi's award-winning drama For a Moment, Freedom, and, alongside Adrien Brody and Salma Hayek, in the Netflix feature Septembers of Shiraz. With his brother Omid he recorded Persian pop music and directed music videos, including for Googoosh, and became known in Germany for playing Hakan on König von Kreuzberg.