Biography

Navid Negahban - "Very dashing, with an old-fashioned matinee-idol air... the closest thing we have to the late Omar Sharif." (GQ Magazine) - is an Iranian-American actor, writer, producer, and director whose work spans four decades, three continents, and countless transformations. His journey began in Mashhad, Iran, where at 17 he discovered mime and physical performance while working with a deaf theater company - an experience that would forever shape how he approaches a role. At 20, he fled during the Iran-Iraq war, crossing through Turkey and Bulgaria before landing in a refugee camp in Ingelheim, Germany. What could have been an ending became a beginning: he joined the Rheinland-Pfalz Theater in Kaiserslautern, spending eight years immersed in the craft before arriving in the United States in 1993, fluent in English, Persian, and German. From there, the transformations began. Abu Nazir in the Emmy-winning Homeland. The Sultan in Disney's billion-dollar Aladdin. The Shadow King in Marvel's Legion. General Dostum in 12 Strong. Each role a disappearance into someone new - a career built on range, depth, and an unwavering commitment to humanizing every character he portrays. Beyond acting, Negahban is a filmmaker. His latest short film The Apple Tree won Best Short Film at the Japan Indies Film Festival (2025). As executive producer, Baba Joon won five Ophir Awards including Best Picture. He also received a BAFTA nomination for his performance in the video game 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. In 2019, he founded the Romany Road Artist Foundation, an artist colony supporting emerging talent. There are also rumors that: "He disappears into his roles." - Scene Creek (Baba Joon) "Navid once again transforms." - Variety (Baba Joon) "The greatest nuance comes from Negahban." - Austin Chronicle (12 Strong) "An excellent Navid Negahban." - Associated Press (12 Strong) "All the psychopathic charm you could ask for a villain." - Paste Magazine (Legion) "Charming, yet always dangerous feeling." - Hogan Reviews (Legion) "A charismatic Navid Negahban." - The New York Times (Homeland) "When Navid Negahban is on the screen, somewhere in the uncomfortable depths of your television-viewing soul, you're kind of rooting for him, and it is confounding and exciting and definitely different." - Bidoun Magazine (Homeland) "Navid Negahban successfully transforms the Sultan from comic relief into a more serious role." - Movie News Net (Aladdin)
- IMDb mini biography by: A.L

[on performing as a complicated villain in 'Homeland'] It is like reading a foreign book with ten different dictionaries sitting there. When I am playing a villain, I'm not really 'playing a villain' because a villain never looks at himself as a villain. He is being judged by the audience whether he is a villain or a hero. So you just need to be very non-judgmental when you play those types of characters. They are fascinating. That torture and torment and dark side inside us is all just point-of-view. That's what make it dark or light.

We are all vessels and what's inside us doesn't know any colour, doesn't know any kind of race. We need to look at each other and see each other for what we are, not for what we have been told the other person is.

[on the popularity of the 'Homeland' series] I think it is a very brave show. It talks about issues that most people may have thought about but are afraid to talk about. They are drawn to it because it doesn't give them answers, it just teases their mind to start thinking about these topics. It doesn't create a hero, it creates an atmosphere for viewers to put themselves into and think what they would do if they were put into that situation.

People ask me where I went to school and I tell them the world has been my school. i have been in different theatre schools and acting schools all around the world, but it's each person on the street - they are my teacher.