Marjan Neshat

Marjan Neshat is an Iranian-born actress who made history in 2025 as the first Iranian-born performer nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Born in Tehran, she was eight years old when her family fled Iran in 1984 following incidents that threatened their safety. An uncle already living in Seattle helped secure visas for the family to enter the United States. Neshat relocated to New York City in 1998 and trained at the State University of New York at Purchase.

Her stage career began Off-Broadway in 2002 with Donna Spector's Golden Ladder. She went on to appear in a 2008 Off-Broadway production of The Seagull alongside Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming. Beginning in 2021, she took part in a series of Off-Broadway productions, among them Sylvia Khoury's Selling Kabul, Sanaz Toossi's Wish You Were Here, and David Cale's Sandra.

The role that defined her Broadway breakthrough was Marjan, the teacher, in Sanaz Toossi's English, a play that had won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Neshat originated the role when the production premiered Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company's Linda Gross Theatre in 2022, a performance that earned her an Obie Award. The play transferred to the Roundabout Theatre Company's Todd Haimes Theatre in January 2025, marking her Broadway debut. Her work in the production brought her both a Theatre World Award in 2025 and the historic Tony nomination.

Neshat has also worked extensively in film and television. Her film appearances include Sex and the City 2 (2010) and Rockaway (2017). On television, she has had roles on New Amsterdam, Quantico, Elementary, and Blue Bloods. In 2025, she appeared in the Netflix thriller series The Night Agent, portraying an Iranian mother whose daughter in New York takes risks to bring her out of Iran. She has a son named Wilder.