Paul Chahidi

Paul Chahidi, born Giv Paul Khatib-Chahidi on 22 August 1969 in Iran, is a British actor of Iranian and British heritage who works professionally under the name Paul Chahidi. His father is Iranian and his mother is British; the two met as students at the Sorbonne in Paris. Chahidi lived in Iran until 1979, when his family relocated to the United Kingdom following the Iranian Revolution. He grew up in Summertown, Oxford, attending the Dragon School and Winchester College before going on to earn a master's degree in Arabic and Persian from Trinity College, Cambridge. He subsequently trained as an actor at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Chahidi is an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His Broadway debut came in 2013, when he appeared in all-male productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III at Shakespeare's Globe, with both productions transferring to Broadway. In Twelfth Night, he portrayed Maria alongside Mark Rylance's Olivia. The performance earned him a Theatre World Award in 2014, a Clarence Derwent Award, and nominations for both an Olivier Award and a Tony Award.

On screen, Chahidi appeared in Armando Iannucci's 2017 historical comedy film The Death of Stalin, playing defence minister Nikolai Bulganin. He also held a recurring role in the BBC Three comedy series This Country, which ran from 2017 to 2020, playing the Reverend Francis Seaton, a vicar who attempts to assist the characters created and performed by siblings Charlie Cooper and Daisy May Cooper. That performance brought him a nomination for the Royal Television Society Award for best Comedy Performance (Male).