Mozhan Navabi

Mozhan Navabi (born May 3, 1980) is an American film and television actress. She is known for her roles in The Blacklist and House of Cards and played Soraya Manutchehri in The Stoning of Soraya M..^[1] She was previously known as Mozhan Marnò, but returned to her given last name, Navabi, in 2023.

Mozhan Navabi
Navabi in 2015
Born	Mozhan Navabi (1980-05-03) May 3, 1980 (age 44) Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
Education	Barnard College (BA) Yale University (MFA)
Occupation(s)	Actress, writer, director
Years active	2006–present

Early life and education

Navabi was born in Los Angeles. Her parents are from Iran and met in California.^[2] She was educated at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.^[3][4] She received her B.A. in French and German comparative literature from Barnard College of Columbia University and her M.F.A. in Acting from the Yale School of Drama.

Personal life

She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.^[5] In addition to English she speaks French, German, Persian, and some Italian.^[3]

Career

Mozhan Navabi played the title role in the 2008 film The Stoning of Soraya M., about a woman whose husband falsely accuses her of adultery, resulting in her death by stoning.^[5][6] In addition she has had roles in a number of television series including The Paul Reiser Show, The Glades, Hung, The Mentalist, Bones, The Unit, Medium, K-ville, and Standoff. Navabi also appeared in the Untitled John Wells Medical Drama Pilot, which was not aired. She also stars in Ana Lily Amirpour's directorial debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, produced by Elijah Wood, under his company, The Woodshed.^[5] In 2011, Navabi voiced Mirabelle Ervine, a Breton mage and Master Wizard of the College of Winterhold, in the critically acclaimed video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.^[7] She played reporter Ayla Sayyad on seasons 2 and 3 of the acclaimed Netflix series House of Cards, for which she was nominated for a SAG award. She played Mossad agent and assassin Samar Navabi in seasons 2-6 of The Blacklist.^[8][9]

Navabi also directs and writes screenplays. Her first feature-length screenplay, When the Lights Went Out, was a quarter finalist for the Nicholl Fellowship. She adapted When the Lights Went Out as a play and it was mounted at New York Stage and Film in July 2013 starring Laura Innes, and directed by Kate Whoriskey (Ruined).^[5][10] Navabi’s short film, Incoming, which she wrote and directed, was accepted to the Noor Iranian Film Festival, LA SHORTS FEST, the Asians on Film Festival, and the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival.

In February 2024, Navabi was cast in the Netflix limited series Zero Day to portray a recurring role of Melissa Kornblau.^[11]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Charlie Wilson's War	Refugee Camp Translator #2
2008	August	Ashley
	Traitor	Leyla
2009	The Stoning of Soraya M.	Soraya Manutchehri
	StereoLife	Gwendolyn Leeds	Short
2010	Apples	Lucky (voice)	Short
2014	A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night	Atti
2019	London Arabia	Mrs. Hassan	Short
	Wonder Woman: Bloodlines	Doctor Cyber (voice)
2021	iGilbert	Detective Rivera
2024	A Chair for Her	Lameece	Short

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	The Unit	Protocol Chief	Episode: "Security"
	Standoff	Agnacia	Episode: "Life Support"
2007	Shark	Maria Lutrova	Episode: "Gangster Movies"
	K-Ville	Jodi Mazetta	Episode: "Ride Along"
2009	Bones	Azita Jabbari	Episode: "A Night at the Bones Museum"
	Medium	Rachel	Episode: "The Devil Inside, Part 2"
2009–11	The Mentalist	Nicki Weymouth	Guest Cast: Season 2-3
2010	Hung	Samara	Episode: "The Middle East is Complicated"
	The Glades	Renee LeFleur	Episode: "Cassadaga"
2011	The Paul Reiser Show	Zeba	Recurring Cast
2012	Ringer	Marguerite	Episode: "P.S. You're an Idiot"
	In Plain Sight	Charlotte	Episode: "Sacrificial Lamb"
2014–15	House of Cards	Ayla Sayyad	Recurring Cast: Season 2-3
2014–19	Madam Secretary	Roxanne Majidi	Guest Cast: Season 1 & 6
2014–22	The Blacklist	Samar Navabi	Main Cast: Season 2-6, Guest: Season 9
2019	The Affair	Petra	Recurring Cast: Season 5
2021	Maid	Tara	Recurring Cast
2022	Pam & Tommy	Gail Chwatsky	Recurring Cast
	Fleishman Is in Trouble	Nahid	Recurring Cast
2024	Law & Order	Stacey Dean	Episode: "Unintended Consequences"
2025	Zero Day	Melissa Kornblau	Recurring Cast

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2011	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	Mirabelle Ervine, Namira
2016	1979 Revolution: Black Friday	Bibi Golestan

Audio Recordings

Year	Title	Author	Role
2015	Hausfrau	Jill Alexander Essbaum	Narrator
2016	The Other Einstein	Marie Benedict	Narrator
	Missoula	Jon Krakauer	Narrator[12]
	The Guest Room	Chris Bohjalian
2018	Song of a Captive Bird	Jasmin Dzarnik	Narrator
2019	The Stationery Shop	Marjan Kamali	Narrator
	The Other Americans	Laila Lalami	Nora
2020	The Paris Diversion	Chris Pavone	Narrator
	The Book of Longings	Sue Monk Kidd	Narrator
2025	Good Girl	Aria Aber	Narrator

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
2009	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture	The Stoning of Soraya M.	Nominated
2015	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	House of Cards	Nominated