Biography X
Navid Navid is an award winning Iranian-German actor and director.Navid Navid is an award winning Iranian-German actor and director. He was born in Teheran, Iran in 1980, but left his home country at the age of five with his family as refugees and resettled in Germany in 1985.
Due to his fathers profession as an event manager, Navid was introduced to the stage and the world of entertainment from the age of six as a singer and dancer. During his younger years Navid was succesful in the Iranian music industry with his pop band 'Navid & Omid’. The band released two studio albums ('Faryad' & 'Kolli Sefaresh') as well as several music videos during that time.
In 2001 he graduated as an actor at the School for Performing Arts in Cologne, and started working as an actor in film, TV and theatre.
Amongst several theater engagements at different theaters in Germany he played the role of Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeares 'Macbeth', and portrayed Romeo in 'Romeo and Juliet' at the 'Altonaer Theater' in Hamburg, Germany.
In 2003, his first leading role in Elmar Fischer’s "Fremder Freund", gained Navid a nomination at the Munich Filmfestival in the category "Best Actor in a Leading Role". In the same year the film won the acclaimed "First Steps Award", the "Digital Visions Award" as well as the Audience Award at the "Filmz Mainz" film festival.
His other leading roles include Mohsen in the German cultural comedy "Salami Aleikum", which became a hit in Germany and Austria. He also had a leading role in the comedy "45 Minutes to Ramallah" and the drama "For a Moment Freedom", which won 30 awards at international film festivals and was the Austrian entry for the Academy Awards in 2009.
In 2017 Navid played alongside Adrien Brody and Salma Hayek in the Hollywood production "Septembers of Shiraz", which is available on Netfilx.
As a director, he has won multiple international awards at filmfestivals for his music videos "November's Fall" and "Habs", which he made for the Iranian legendary singer Ebi. The music video "Behesht", which he directed for the Iranian legendary singer Googoosh, gathered international attention for being the first Iranian music video portraying a lesbian love story.
Navid also works as a voice actor who has dubbed the lead role of Al from the CBS sitcom “United States of Al” for the German speaking audience. In 2020 he narrated Dalia Sofer's novel Man of My Time for Audible.
Besides working as an actor and director, Navid also works as a guest teacher and gives workshops on how to direct actors and produce music videos at the filmschool SAE in Berlin.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH A COLLECTION OF NAVID's DIRECTORIAL WORK
News X
"MAN OF MY TIME"
Listen to "Man of My Time" by Dalia Sofer on Audible, narrated by Navid."HABS (Imprisoned)"
Starring the legendary Iranian singer Ebi, for whom Navid wrote, produced and directed the music video, won the Audience Award at the UMFF and was nominated at 7 more film festivals.
"SEPTEMBERS OF SHIRAZ"
IS OUT NOW!Starring: Adrien Brody, Salma Hayek, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Navid Navid
Producers: Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel, Avi Lerner
Director: Wayne Blair
You can watch the complete film on:
Netflix | iTunes | Amazon | Google Play
Press
THE NEW YORK TIMES:
"...The film's innovation is its reading of extremist zeal as a perversion of youthful energy. Aided by Mr. Akhavan's quicksilver performance..."(by Dana Stevens)
THE NEW YORK POST:
"Akhavan plays each change brilliantly in a film that is so tightly controlled that the mere glimpse of a new beard or a prayer mat being unrolled becomes a moment of horror."(by Kyle Smith)
VARIETY
"Akhavan, a fine actor, portrays the terrible emotional cost of this farce even as he goes ahead with it. (...) Casting of the four attractive young leads, who seem to have stepped out of a romantic teen comedy, pays off as the story spins into a dark nightmare and the carefree setup turns dark. Both leads offer riveting interpretations of their characters: Wannek as the culturally curious German liberal ready to fight for his friend and follow his code of ethics to the end; Akhavan as a poetic youth whose life goes disastrously off track (...)Akhavan is appealing on screen."
(by Deborah Young)
BZ BERLIN:
"Navid Navid: Von Hollywood zu Hannelore Elsner"(by Carina Parke)
CINEMA:
"Das Feelgood-Movie der Saison: Wer nach dieser fantasievollen Kulturclash-Komödie noch schlechte Laune hat, dem ist nicht mehr zu helfen."WELT:
"Auch wenn es sich vom Titel nicht so anhören mag, ist der Kinofilm "Salami Aleikum" eine wirklch gute Komödie."(by Cosima Lutz)
KINO ZEIT:
"Salami Alekum, Ein bestrickender Clash der Kulturen"(by Paul Collmar)
EPD FILM:
"Karim Saleh als gockelhafter Womanizer und Navid Akavan als Einfaltspinsel verkörpern zwei liebenswürdige Charaktere, die man in diesem Roadmovie (...) gerne begleitet."(by Manfred Riepe)
PROGRAMMKINO:
"Animierte Sequenzen unterbrechen den Lauf der turbulenten Geschichte. Und auch das Timing stimmt, um die Spannung zu halten. Das verdankt er nicht zuletzt seinem spielfreudigen Hauptdarsteller Navid Akhavan, der bereits in „Salami Aleikum“ als strickender Metzgerssohn glänzte. Meisterhaft beherrscht auch der in Teheran geborene Schauspieler und Sänger den Spagat zwischen souveräner Missachtung der Realität und Normalität des Grotesken."(by Luitgard Koch)
PRESS regarding the music video "Behesht" ("Paradise"),
which Navid wrote and directed for the legendary persian singer Googoosh:
Contact X
AGENT | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Agentur Hoestermann |
| Telephone: | +49.30.6950.1881 |
| Email: | mail@hoestermann.de |
MANAGER | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Paul Becker |
| US #: | +1.310.8611.433 |
| Email: | paul@paulbecker-talent.com |
All pictures by YASMINE ASHA
