The Biography

Narges Rashidi is an actress of Iranian descent. In 2015, she played the lead role of Shide in the feature film *Under the Shadow* by Babak Anvari. The film celebrated its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts submitted the film as a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2017 Oscars. The industry trade publication *Variety* included Rashidi on its list of "The Best Performances of Sundance 2016," and at the 2016 Fantaspoa International Fantastic Film Festival in Porto Alegre, she won the Jury Award for Best Actress. Since 2011, she has lived primarily in Los Angeles, where her husband, Christian Straka, works as a tennis coach.