Navid Negahban
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Navid Negahban | |
|---|---|
نوید نگهبان | |
 Negahban at the 2019 WonderCon | |
| Born | June 2, 1968 |
| Occupations | Actor, producer, director |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Website | navidnegahban |
Navid Negahban (Persian: نوید نگهبان) is an Iranian-American actor, producer, and director. He has appeared on 24, Homeland, Mistresses, and as Amahl Farouk / Shadow King in the second and third seasons of FX's Legion. He has also starred as the Sultan in the live-action remake of Aladdin, as General Abdul Rashid Dostum in 12 Strong, as Faraz Hamzad in The Old Man, and as Abbas Mansuri in The Night Agent.
Navid Negahban was born in Mashhad, Iran. He took a liking to the theater when he was eight years old, while provoking laughter from a large audience by portraying an old man on stage.[1]
He left Iran in 1985 when he was 17 for Turkey and then Germany, where he spent eight years.[2] In Germany, he worked for a theater company, and then in 1993 he moved to the United States.[2]
He is fluent in English, German, and Persian.[1][2] He also began learning French for his role on Legion.[citation needed]
Career
He has appeared in The Shield, The West Wing, Lost, and CSI: Miami.[3][better source needed] He has collaborated twice with Iranian-American actress Necar Zadegan, once in 24, where her on-screen husband ordered his interrogation and the torturing of his family, and also in CSI: Miami, where, as his wife, she killed him.[4][better source needed]
Negahban also had two collaborations with another Iranian-American actress, Mozhan Marnò, in the TV series The Unit[5] and the movie The Stoning of Soraya M., where he plays the husband of Soraya (Marnò). In 2008, Negahban voiced and provided his likeness to the character Dr. Challus Mercer in the survival horror game Dead Space.[3] Negahban also appeared as terrorist mastermind Abu Nazir in the critically acclaimed TV series Homeland.[1]
In 2011 he won the Best Actor Award for the 2009 Iranian short film, Liberation at the Noor Iranian Film Festival, and in 2012, he returned to serve as an official festival judge. In February 2015, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety confirmed that Negahban had begun shooting the spy thriller, Damascus Cover, based on the novel by Howard Kaplan, alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Olivia Thirlby, and John Hurt. Negahban played the role of Syrian General Sarraj.[citation needed]
He appeared as General Abdul Rashid Dostum in the 2018 war drama, 12 Strong, and also starred as the Sultan in the 2019 live-action adaptation of Aladdin.[citation needed] In 2022, he appeared in the American crime drama television series The Cleaning Lady as Hayak Barsamian, an Armenian Mob Boss.[citation needed]
In 2025, he appeared as Abbas Mansuri in Netflix's The Night Agent, the Iranian Ambassador to the UN working in New York.[6] Of interest is that in the entire show his dialog is in Persian (Farsi) with subtitles in English, giving an added air of credibility to the character. His short film The Apple Tree (2025), which he directed, won Best Short Film at the Japan Indies Film Festival. He received a BAFTA Games Award nomination for Best Performer in 2017 for his work on the video game 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. As executive producer, his film Baba Joon won five Ophir Awards including Best Picture at the Israeli Film Academy.[citation needed]
