Sarah Shahi Biography

Aahoo Jahansouz "Sarah" Shahi (born January 10, 1980) is an American television actress and former NFL Cheerleader. She played Kate Reed in the USA Network legal drama Fairly Legal in 2011-12, she played Carmen on The L Word in 2008, and currently stars as Sameen Shaw on the CBS crime drama Person of Interest. She has also appeared as the main female role Det. Dani Reese in Life, and in supporting roles in The L Word and Alias.

Early life

Sarah Shahi was born on January 10, 1980, in Euless, Texas, and raised there. She is the daughter of Mah Monir, an interior designer, and Abbas Jahansouz Shahi, who divorced when she was ten. Her father is from Iran. Her mother's father is Persian and her mother's mother is from Spain. She has an older brother, Cyrus, and a younger sister, Samantha, who is a production assistant. Her father's family left Iran two years before the Iranian Revolution. Her father, who was working at the American Embassy in Iran, was slated for execution when the regime collapsed in 1979 but was allowed to flee the country. Her birth name, Aahoo (), means "gazelle" in Persian. She is a great-great-granddaughter of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar of the Qajar Dynasty, who ruled Iran from 1797 to 1834, by one of his wives, Begom Khanom, daughter of Hossein Qoli Khan Afshar, niece of Begom Khanom, daughter Emam Qoli Khan Afshar, through their son Jahansouz Shah.

Shahi adopted Sarah as her name in second grade after hearing a song called "Sarah" because she was "tormented" by other children about her unusual birth name. At her father's behest, she grew up speaking Persian/Farsi, in addition to English. Shahi's parents began entering her in beauty pageants at the age of eight. Her parents divorced when she was 10. Shahi attended Trinity High School, where she was captain of the volleyball and basketball teams, and Dallas' Southern Methodist University, majoring in English and Theater. Shahi won the Miss Fort Worth pageant in 1997. Hoping to become an actress, she joined the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (1999-2000) squad despite not having cheered before and appeared on the cover of the squad's 2000 calendar before moving to Los Angeles.

Acting career

While working as an extra on the set of Dr. T and the Women in Texas, Shahi met director Robert Altman, who encouraged her to move to Hollywood, where she received roles in several series, including Alias, Dawson's Creek, Reba, and Supernatural. In 2005 she appeared in the role of DJ Carmen de la Pica Morales on The L Word, which she joined in its second season. Shahi did not renew her contract with the series for the fourth season, and consequently her character was written out. She also played Farah in the second season of Sleeper Cell, and also appeared in HBO's The Sopranos, in the Season 6b episode "Kennedy and Heidi" as "Sonya Aragon", a stripper and college student who spends a weekend with Tony after a death in his family. In 2007, she secured a small role in Rush Hour 3 as Zoe, a scantily clad rich girl who is pursued by Chris Tucker's character, Detective Carter.

After Rush Hour, she scored her first permanent leading role, co-starring with Damian Lewis in the NBC series Life as homicide detective Dani Reese. The series ran for two seasons.

In October 2009, Shahi landed the lead role in the USA Network pilot, Facing Kate. Shahi began filming in November 2009. The show follows the life of Kate Reed, a legal mediator who is frustrated with the bureaucracy and injustice she witnesses in the legal system. The series title was later changed to Fairly Legal. The show was cancelled after two seasons in November 2012.

Shahi was cast as a recurring love interest for Taylor Kinney's character Lt. Kelly Severide on NBC's show Chicago Fire in October, 2012. She was also cast as the possibly recurring character of Sameen Shaw on Person of Interest. She was featured in the sixteenth episode of the second season, "Relevance", which aired in February 2013. In May, 2013 CBS President Nina Tassler announced that Shahi would be added as a series regular for its third season. She played the daughter of Sylvester Stallone's character in the action film Bullet to the Head. Following the January 7, 2015 episode of Person of Interest, Shahi and the show's producers announced she would be leaving the show for an indefinite period of time because of her pregnancy.

On February 29, 2016, it was announced she would play iconic teen detective Nancy Drew in a contemporary take on the book series.

Personal life

Shahi married actor Steve Howey on February 7, 2009, in Las Vegas. On July 8, 2009, she gave birth to their first child, son William Wolf Howey, during an at-home water birth. In January 2015, she announced that she was pregnant with twins. On March 1, 2015, daughter Violet Moon and son Knox Blue were born during another home birth.

Shahi was named number 90 on the Maxim magazine "Hot 100 of 2005" list, moving up to number 66 in 2006 and 36 in 2012. She appeared on the cover of Maxims 2012 'TV's Hottest Girls' Issue in October 2012. She ranked number 5 on the AfterEllen.com hot list in 2007.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
2000	Dr. T and the Women	Cheerleader	Uncredited
2003	Old School	Erica
2003	Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde	Becky, Delta Nu sister	Uncredited
2005	'	Starlet
2006	For Your Consideration	Sanchez
2006	'	Candy
2007	Rush Hour 3	Zoe	Uncredited
2008	Shades of Ray	Sana Khaliq
2008	AmericanEast	Salwah
2009	Crossing Over	Pooneh Baraheri
2011	East Fifth Bliss	Hattie Skunk / Hattie Rockworth
2011	I Don't Know How She Does It	Janine LoPietro
2012	Static	Adele Dade
2012	Bullet to the Head	Lisa Bonomo
2013	The Congress	Michelle
2014	Road to Paloma	Eva
2014	Guns for Hire	Carla
2015	Divine Access	Marian

Television

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
2000	City Guys	Cheerleader	Episode: "Shock Treatment"
2000	Spin City	Bachelorette	Episode: "Blind Faith"
2001	Boston Public	Laura	Episode: "Chapter Eleven"
2001	Off Centre	Angelica	Episode: "A Cute Triangle"
2001	Maybe It's Me	Rosa	Episode: "The Exchange-Student Episode"
2001-2002	Alias	Jenny	Episodes: "So It Begins", "A Broken Heart", "Reckoning", "Color Blind", "Spirit", "The Box: Part 1", and "Page 47"
2002	Class of "?06	Meg	Television film
2002	My Adventures in Television	TV Diva	Episode: "The Chinese Baby"
2003	Frasier	Reservationist	Episode: "Door Jam"
2003	Dawson's Creek	Sadie Shaw / Mystery Girl	Episodes: "Catch-22", "Sex and Violence", and "All the Right Moves"
2003	ER	Tara King	Episode: "The Greater Good"
2004	Century City	Ms. Morris	Episode: "Sweet Child of Mine"
2004-2007	Reba	Bridget / Kate	Episodes: "Cheyenne"?s Rival" and "To Tell You the Truth"
2005	Plan B	Bronwyn	Television film
2005	Supernatural	Constance Welch / The Woman in White	Episode: "Pilot"
2005-2009	'	Carmen de la Pica Morales	Supporting Role character in 26 (of 70) episodes
2005	The Drop	Herself	Episode: "2.49"
2006	Teachers	Tina Torres	Main character
2006	Sleeper Cell	Farrah	Episodes: "Faith" and "Torture"
2007	'	Sonya Aragon	Episode: "Kennedy and Heidi"
2007-2009	Life	Dani Reese	Main character
2010	Psych	Ruby	Episode: "Thrill Seekers and Hell Raisers"
2011-2012	Fairly Legal	Kate Reed	Main character
2011	Young Justice	Killer Frost	Episode: "Terrors"
2012-2013	Chicago Fire	Renee Royce	7 episodes
2013-present	Person of Interest	Sameen Shaw	first in Season 2 episode "Relevance", and 3 more in this season, regular from the third season
2015	Ray Donovan	Hasmig	Episode: "One Night In Yerevan"