Azita Ghanizada was born in Kabul…

Yes, that Kabul as in Afghanistan.

Photography Jeff Vespa

Azita opened up to us about what it was like growing up with a dream that could have gotten her killed in her home country.

V: What was your childhood like? 

AG: In a nutshell … rough, we were lost in translation in the suburbs of Washington D.C. nothing really made a lot of sense. There was conflict we had just escaped, a lot of news about war & death, a lot of merging two cultures into school.  Trying to fit in, trying to be pretend to be kid when you had already seen too much to believe in the innocence of the world.  TV & books were my escape, they taught me English, they taught me how American culture worked … it was everything to me. TV & the public library, the only two things I was even really allowed to experience safely.

V: What made you want to be an actor? 

AG: As a child, Indian film stars, they were so glamorous, beautiful and ethnic, which was major. Everyone in America was very white on screen. Watching the lost boys was an important moment, my older sister took me to the small theater in my neighborhood and I was way too young to watch it. It scared me, but also made me laugh, made me excited. I wanted to be a vampire, I wanted to transform, I guess transcend reality like they did.

V: How did you first get into acting?

AG: I moved to Los Angeles & worked 4-5 jobs and got a commercial agent, I started in commercials did a dozen or so in the first few years.  I was lucky.

V: Was there one moment when you just knew that this is what you wanted to do with the rest of your life?

AG: I was screen testing for the lead girl in the kite runner and screen testing w/ Tim Robbins to be this sexual muse, more or less, in an independent film all in the same week.  I went from one complete emotion, in another language at that, to a whole other realm of sexual desire, lust, & loss.  It was exhilarating to experience all those emotions. I didn’t get either film; I’d never experience such tremendous creative loss. I got my ass handed to me and lost the film I thought was suppose to be my story to share. Instead of questioning my career, I knew I couldn’t ever do anything else with my life but share stories, express human emotion fully.

V: Did you take drama in school? 

AG: I wasn’t allowed.

V: Have you had other jobs to support yourself as an actor? 

AG: You name the job I’ve had it. I’ve done everything from nanny, housesit, cat sit, cocktail waitress, write for magazines, and assist TV producers.  I never had any pride about working; I’ve got solid immigrant roots … Working multiple jobs and going to class, going to auditions, getting rejected. That’s the stuff that gives you character. Having things handed to you will only get you so far.  Being hungry and remembering those struggles is what continues to push you.

V: What is your current project?

AG: Rachel Pirzad, alphas on Syfy Channel. Playing Rachel has been a tremendous gift as an actress. She is shy, timid, unsure of herself, fragile and gentle. She is very opposite of who I am and how I’ve survived my life.  Carving her out and creating her has been incredible. And now that’s what most people know me as, which is very interesting to me.

V: What kind of roles do you want to play in the future?

AG: Right now I’m craving things that are a bit more dangerous. A bit perverse, dominating, power driven … Rachel is so shy that 5 months as her has me biting, fighting to express myself in the opposite way.

V: Are there roles you really want to play but don’t think anyone will offer you?

AG: My ethnicity plays an interesting card. There is a lot that I won’t get because of it, but they also told me that the market for an afghan actress on TV didn’t exist, and they were wrong.  At the very least, I know I could be in a killer spy film.  I often audition for film roles and they go to someone like Eva Green, so at least I know I’m in the right direction, cause those are the roles I want.

V: Is there one story about an experience you have had acting or auditioning that stands out? 

Good: I did TV pilot called tough trade with Sam Shephard, Cary Elwes and Lucas Black. She was this bold, Algerian French gold digger who was to become a danger player in this dynasty. The casting director told me to go for it, really fight him … I walked into a room of 5 men and Jenji Kohan and we went at it, I almost threw my chair at him, my breast slipped out of my bra, it was wild, passionate, real and it was in an Arabic accent.  I got the part.

Bad: When I got to Nashville to film the part 6 weeks later, the show creator came up to me the night before I started and said he wanted to change the accent to French! French!!!! I had worked 6weeks on Arabic, I panicked, thought I was going to get fired. Drilled the dialogue for the next day in a French accent, good enough to not suck. Then after the first take, he ran over and said, ‘i was wrong, she should have an Arabic accent.’   I died inside, all my takes that first day were wooden and messy … It wasn’t a shining moment for me.

V: What is something you feel people don’t know about you that you wish they did?

AG: I don’t think you should tell people anything, you should show them.

V: Is there a single powerful and influential event in your life that you feel guides your creative life? 

AG: I grew up hard, and my childhood and history before coming to la is layered and painful. I wasn’t supported as an artist or even really as a woman with my own freedoms.  I couldn’t begin acting when I moved to la, because I had to get a job to support my sister moving out here. I had no help. I had never been on a plane past Chicago. I had my mom’s one piece of luggage from Kabul that was missing a wheel. I had no idea why I left everyone and everything and came here on my own, but it was a strong whisper and a sensation in my stomach that said this is where you should be. I don’t know that I’d be that brave now, to pick up and move, broke, alone … I go back to that braveness that resides somewhere inside of me.  She’s smarter than I am, most of the time, and that braver version of me is often how I approach my work.

I grew up being told I wasn’t allowed to participate in sports or do plays, that I would shame my family if I did so, that only women with intelligence marry well, so my focus should be on school and my books.  But family and my national identity are very important to me and essential. They were right in teaching me that my brain was my most powerful weapon, and even though they shunned my creative side then, they loudly support it now.  And so when I get caught up in this business, frustrated or feel uninspired I remember that I escaped a very different life. One in which I’d be living under laws that any independence, my career wouldn’t be possible. In fact it would get me murdered.  I try and remind myself this … That just living with free will and being able to create art is a powerful gift. So keep on doing it, but try and do it well.

Watch Azita on her show “Alphas” on the SYFY Channel Mondays 8/7c.