Azadeh Zanjani
I came to performance before I had language for it. As a child, singing or stepping onstage seemed to loosen gravity and carry me briefly beyond the ordinary world.
Returning to theatre years later did not feel like beginning again. It felt like entering a room within myself that had remained untouched.
Onstage, space is made from bodies, breath, light, and silence. What keeps me there is the charged distance between invention and truth, and the rare moment when an audience becomes still enough for that distance to disappear.

BIO

Azadeh Zanjani headshot

Azadeh Zanjani is a Seattle-based actor, director, and multidisciplinary artist working across theatre and film. Her acting credits include Wish You Were Here, Where Is Here?, The Forgotten History of Mastaneh, The Play of Life and Death, and The Title, a short film written and directed by Naghmeh Samini.

Her directing work includes staged readings for the Seda Iranian Theatre Playreading Festival and the short film Your Destination Was Not Found. In ArtsWest’s production of Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here, she also served as assistant director.

Azadeh has trained in Meisner, the Michael Chekhov technique, and Perdekamp Emotional Method. Her background in architecture informs her attention to space, movement, composition, and the relationship between a performer and the world around them.

Based Seattle, Washington
Languages English · Farsi · French
Music Classically trained soprano

RÉSUMÉ

Stage

Wish You Were Here

New Friend

ArtsWest / Seda Theatre

Where Is Here?

Solo Performer

Seattle Public Theater / Seda Theatre

The Forgotten History of Mastaneh

Mrs. Rahimi

Seattle Public Theater / Seda Theatre

The Forgotten History of Mastaneh

Mrs. Rahimi

Macha Theatre Works / Seda Theatre

Hijab

Safiya

Dunya Productions / Bainbridge Performing Arts

The Play of Life and Death

The Nurse

Seda Theatre / Macha Theatre Works

Kaveh's Birthday

Helen

Seda Theatre

Film

The Title

Fereshteh, Lead

Naghmeh Samini / Take Zero Productions / Seda Theatre

Directing

Wish You Were Here

Assistant Director

ArtsWest / Seda Theatre

English

Assistant Director

ArtsWest

Your Destination Was Not Found

Director

Short Film

Seda Theatre Playreading Festival

Director

Staged Readings

Training

Meisner Training Program

Robin Lynn Smith

Michael Chekhov Technique

Anna Karphukhina

Perdekamp Emotional Method (PEM)

Enna Blake

Movement for the Actor

Mik Kuhlman

Acting and Scene Study

Meg McLynn / Elena Flory-Barnes

Acting for the Camera

John Jacobsen

Voiceover

Kira Dorrian

Solo Performance

Kevin Joyce

Special Skills

Languages

Native Farsi, fluent English, beginner French

Music

Classically trained soprano; piano; recorder

HEADSHOTS

Azadeh Zanjani headshot, close color portrait
Azadeh Zanjani headshot 13
Azadeh Zanjani smiling headshot with long curly hair
Azadeh Zanjani headshot with long curly hair
Azadeh Zanjani headshot with hair styled up
Azadeh Zanjani headshot wearing glasses