Azita Ghanizada

Azita Ghanizada (born 1978/1979) is an American actress and advocate whose work spans television, film, and stage. She is recognized for her role in the Syfy series Alphas and for her 2022 Broadway debut in the musical adaptation of The Kite Runner. Beyond her acting career, Ghanizada founded the MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition and serves as a global ambassador for Women for Women International.

Ghanizada's family fled Afghanistan when she was an infant, after her father's connections through his work at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, enabled them to seek political asylum in the United States. She grew up in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., where she acquired much of her English by watching American television. Regular family visits to a local cinema screening Bollywood films, along with her mother's admiration for Indian and American film stars, shaped her ambition to pursue acting. She later relocated to Los Angeles, where she began her on-camera career through television commercials and guest appearances on series including How I Met Your Mother, Entourage, Veronica Mars, The Mentalist, Psych, Ghost Whisperer, Castle, and Up All Night.

Her first series regular role came in 2008, when she joined the cast of General Hospital: Night Shift for its second season, playing Dr. Saira Batra, a holistic medicine specialist. The following year, she appeared in the television pilot Tough Trade alongside Sam Shepard and Cary Elwes, a project created by Weeds writer Jenji Kohan and executive produced by T Bone Burnett. In 2010, Ghanizada joined the primary cast of the Syfy series Alphas opposite David Strathairn, portraying Rachel Pirzad, a character with heightened sensory abilities. The series was picked up in 2011 and ran for two seasons. In 2014, she was cast as a series regular in the NBC comedy pilot Ellen More or Less, directed by Peyton Reed, though the pilot was not ordered to series.

Her film work includes the 2016 feature Complete Unknown, in which she appeared alongside Rachel Weisz and Michael Shannon. Her performance in that film earned her recognition as one of seven Sundance breakout actresses. In 2017, she began production on Kevin Smith's feature KillRoy Was Here, and in 2019 she took on recurring roles in both Ballers and Good Trouble. In 2024, she was announced as a cast member of Suits LA, playing the role of Roslyn Noori.

Ghanizada made her Broadway debut in 2022 in the co-lead role of Soraya in the stage adaptation of The Kite Runner. The production marked her first appearance on Broadway.

Parallel to her performing career, Ghanizada has been a prominent advocate for Middle Eastern North African and South West Asian North African performers in the entertainment industry. She founded the MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition in 2016. In 2017, she and other performers successfully lobbied SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to add MENA as a distinct diversity category in theatrical contracts, representing the first new hiring category introduced in a labor contract in 37 years. She also serves as a global ambassador for Women for Women International, with a focus on supporting women in Afghanistan in accessing work and education.