Shahab Hosseini

Sayyid Shahabeddin Hosseini Tonekaboni (Persian: سیّد شهاب‌الدین حسینی تنکابنی; born February 3, 1974) is an Iranian actor, producer, director and screenwriter. He is known for his collaborations with Iranian Academy Award-winning director Asghar Farhadi in About Elly (2009), A Separation (2011), and The Salesman (2016). His accolades include a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, a Silver Bear for Best Actor, and a Crystal Simorgh for Best Actor.

Shahab Hosseini
شهاب حسینی
Hosseini in 2024
Born	Seyyed Shahabedin Hosseini Tonekaboni (1974-02-03) February 3, 1974 (age 51) Tehran, Iran
Occupations	Actor producer director screenwriter host
Years active	1991–present
Spouses	Parichehr Ghanbari ​ ​ (m. 1997; div. 2021)​ Sanaz Arjmand ​ (m. 2022)​
Children	2

Early life

Shahab Hosseini was born on February 3, 1974 in Tehran. He earned his high school diploma in Biology. He dropped out of the University of Tehran as a psychology student and emigrated to Canada. Later, he became a radio host in Iran, and hosted a TV show for youth. He also took on some small acting roles in a few TV series. Hosseini's cinematic debut was in Rokhsareh (2002) directed by Amir Ghavidel. His career took off with his performance in the movie The Fifth Reaction directed by Tahmineh Milani.^[1] In June 2011, he announced that he would be taking a break but would return to cinema in 2013.^[2]

Career

Acting

Hosseini has won the Silver Bear for Best Actor for A Separation at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, and the Best Actor Award at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival for his role in The Salesman.^[3] Hosseini won his first award, Crystal Simorgh for Superstar in 2009.^[4] In 2013, he made his directorial debut.^[5] In 2020, Hosseini co-founded Pol Media ("pol" translating to "bridge" in Persian) with director Kourosh Ahari and producer Alex Bretow, a distribution and production company aiming to "bridge the gap" between Iranian art, culture and cinema with that of the U.S.^[6]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes	Ref(s)
2002	Rokhsareh	Mahan Farzam	Amir Ghavidel		[7]
	Dummies	Morad	Ali Ghavitan		[8]
2003	The Fifth Reaction	Majid	Tahmineh Milani		[9]
	The Woman Keeps Silent	Mani	Ahmad Amini		[10]
	Poisonous Honey	Shahin	Ebrahim Sheibani		[11]
2004	A Candle in the Wind	Babak	Pouran Derakhshandeh		[12]
	The Ziggurat Goddess	Bahram	Rahman Rezaei		[13]
2005	Fifty Million Proposal	Barmak	Mehdi Sabaghzadeh		[14]
	Salvation at 8:20	Foad	Sirus Alvand		[15]
	Whirlpool	Homayoun	Hassan Hedayat		[16]
2006	Online Murder	Keyvan	Masoud Abparvar		[17]
	Love Story		Bijan Birang		[18]
	Eternal Children	Iman	Pouran Derakhshandeh		[19]
2007	Unexpected	Salk	Mohammad Hadi Karimi		[20]
	Paradise Station	Soroush	Nader Moghadas		[21]
	Flags of Kaveh's Castle	Sadegh	Mohammad Nourizad		[22]
2008	Niloofar	Aziz	Sabine El Gemayel		[23]
	Mahya	Javid	Akbar Khajouei		[24]
2009	About Elly	Ahmad	Asghar Farhadi		[25]
	Superstar	Kourosh Zand	Tahmineh Milani		[26]
	Heartbroken	Amirali	Ali Rouintan		[27]
	Around the Highway	Pasha	Siavash As'adi		[28]
2010	A Walk in the Fog	Amin	Bahram Tavakoli		[29]
	Anahita	Behnam	Azizollah Hamidnezhad		[30]
2011	Snow on a Hot Tin Roof	Bahman	Mohammad Hadi Karimi		[31]
	Final Whistle	Saman	Niki Karimi		[32]
	A Separation	Hojjat	Asghar Farhadi		[33]
	Goodbye	Esfandiar	Mohammad Rasoulof		[34]
2012	The Paternal House	Naser	Kianoush Ayari		[35]
	Someone Wants to Talk with You	Mostafa	Manouchehr Hadi		[36]
	Ziba and I	Jafar	Fereidoun Hassanpour		[37]
2013	Africa	Shahab	Houman Seyyedi	Direct-to-video	[38]
	The Painting Pool	Reza	Maziar Miri		[39]
	The Interpretation of a Dream	Major	Reza Dadooi	Direct-to-video	[40]
	Hush! Girls Don't Scream	The Detective	Pouran Derakhshandeh		[41]
2014	A Five Star	Reza	Mahshid Afsharzadeh		[42]
	Resident of the Middle Floor		Shahab Hosseini	also as director	[43]
2015	Time to Love	Hamid	Alireza Raeesian		[44]
	Sweet Taste of Imagination	Grous	Kamal Tabrizi		[45]
2016	Come with Me		Shahab Hosseini, Sina Azin, Alireza Nasaee	also as director	[46]
	Parallel Shadows	Rabiei	Asghar Naimi		[47]
	Wednesday	Salim	Soroush Mohammadzadeh		[48]
	The Salesman	Emad	Asghar Farhadi		[49]
	My Brother Khosrow	Khosrow	Ehsan Bigleri		[50]
	Gholam	Gholam	Mitra Tabrizian		[51]
2017	Final Exam	Farhad	Adel Yaraghi		[52]
	Lobby		Mohammad Parvizi	unreleased film	[53]
2018	The Midnight Sun		Shabir Shirazi	also as producer, casting director	[54]
	The Residents of Nowhere		Shahab Hosseini	also as director and producer; released in 2023	[55]
2019	Lovely Trash	Mansour	Mohsen Amiryoussefi		[56]
	Nabat	Saeed	Pegah Arzi		[57]
	Labyrinth	Amirali	Amir Hossein Torabi		[58]
2020	Any Day Now	Bahman Mehdipour	Hamy Ramezan		[59]
	Sheen		Meisam Kazazi	as producer	[60]
	The Night	Babak Naderi	Kourosh Ahari		[61]
	After the Incident	–	Pouria Heidary Oureh	as producer	[62]
2021	Mahrokh's House	–	Shahram Ebrahimi	as producer	[63]
	Nargesi		Payam Eskandari		[64]
2022	The Writer Is Dead	–	Shahab Hosseini	as director, producer	[65]
	Golden Blood	Mr. Keshavarz	Ebrahim Sheibani		[66]
	The Last Act	–	Shahab Hosseini	as director, producer	[67]
2024	Intoxicated by Love	Shams Tabrizi	Hassan Fathi		[68]
	Shukran	Taher	Pietro Malegori		[69]
2025	Raha	Tohid	Hesam Farahmand		[70]
TBA	The Far Mountains		Mitra Tabrizian	Pre-Production	[71]
TBA	Wild Berries	Davood	Soudabeh Moradian	Pre-production	[72]

Web

Year	Title	Role	Director	Platform	Notes	Ref(s)
2015–2018	Shahrzad	Ghobad Divansalar	Hassan Fathi	Lotus Play	Main role; 59 episodes	[73]
2020–2021	Mutual Friendship	Himself	Shahab Hosseini	Namava	Talk show; host, 31 episodes	[74]
2022–2023	The Lion Skin	Moheb Meshkat	Jamshid Mahmoudi	Filmnet	Main role; 24 episodes	[75]
2023–2024	Fereshteh's Sin	Hamed Tehrani	Hamed Angha	Filimo	Main role; 18 episodes	[76]
2025	Aban	Fariborz Sabet	Reza Dadooi	Sheyda	Main role	[77]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Director	Network	Notes	Ref(s)
2001	After the Rain	Ali Ahmadi	Saeed Soltani	IRIB TV3	TV series	[78]
	Fellow Traveler	Reza	Ghasem Jafari	IRIB TV3		[79]
	The Lawyer		Sirous Moghaddam	IRIB TV5		[80]
	Young Police	Younes Behgar	Sirous Moghaddam	IRIB TV3		[81]
2004	Cold Fever	Shahab Kianfar	Alireza Afkhami	IRIB TV3		[82]
2007	The Dance Fly	Dr. Vahid Molaei	Ahmad Moradpour	IRIB TV2		[83]
	Zero Degree Turn	Habib Parsa	Hassan Fathi	IRIB TV1		[84]
2012–2013	Flying Passion	Abbas Babaei	Yadollah Samadi	IRIB TV1		[85]
2014	Red Hat 93	Himself	Iraj Tahmasb	IRIB TV2		[86]
	Seven	Himself	Mojtaba Amini	IRIB TV3	TV program	[87]
2019	Sugarland	Narrator	Saeed Zamani, Babak Nazari	IRIB Nasim	TV series	[88]
2023–2024	Homeland	Rahi Bahadori	Kamal Tabrizi	IRIB TV3		[89]

Theatre

Year	Title	Playwright	Director	Stage	Ref(s)
2017	The Confession	Brad Mirman	Shahab Hosseini	City Theater of Tehran	[90]

Awards and nominations

Name of the award ceremony, year presented, category, nominee of the award, and the result of the nomination

Award	Year	Category	Nominated Work	Result	Ref(s)
Action On Film International Film Festival	2016	Best Director – Motion Picture	Resident of the Middle Floor	Won
		Best Actor	Hush! Girls Don't Scream	Won
Beijing International Film Festival	2021	Best Supporting Actor	Any Day Now	Won
Berlin International Film Festival	2011	Best Actor	A Separation	Won
Cannes Film Festival	2016	Best Actor	The Salesman	Won
Chlotrudis Awards	2012	Best Supporting Actor	A Separation	Nominated
Cine Paris Film Festival	2022	Best Feature Film	The Writer Is Dead	Won
Fajr Film Festival	2004	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	A Candle in the Wind	Nominated
	2005		Salvation at 8:20	Nominated
	2008	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Mahya	Honorary Diploma
	2009		About Elly	Nominated
			Superstar	Won
	2011	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	A Separation	Honorary Diploma
	2015	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Time to Love	Nominated
	2025		Raha	Nominated	[91]
Hafez Awards	2010	Best Actor – Television Series Drama	Zero Degree Turn	Nominated
	2011	Best Actor – Motion Picture	Superstar and About Elly	Won
	2016	Best Actor – Television Series Drama	Shahrzad	Nominated
	2017	Best Actor – Motion Picture	The Salesman	Won
	2018		My Brother Khosrow	Nominated
		Best Actor – Television Series Drama	Shahrzad	Nominated
	2023		The Lion Skin	Nominated
		Abbas Kiarostami Prize	Residents of Nowhere	Nominated
	2024	Best Actor – Television Series Drama	Homeland	Nominated	[92]
International Cinephile Society	2012	Best Supporting Actor	A Separation	Runner-up
Iran Cinema Celebration	2003	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	The Fifth Reaction	Nominated
	2004		A Candle in the Wind	Nominated
	2008	Best Actor in a Leading Role	A Walk in the Fog and About Elly	Won
	2011	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	A Separation	Won
	2014	Best Actor in a Leading Role	The Painting Pool	Nominated
	2017		The Salesman	Won
Iran's Film Critics and Writers Association	2010	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Superstar and About Elly	Nominated
	2011		A Walk in the Fog	Won
	2012	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	A Separation	Won
	2014	Best Actor in a Leading Role	The Painting Pool	Honorary Diploma
	2016		My Brother Khosrow	Nominated
Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco	2020	Best Actor	Labyrinth	Won
Jasmine International Film Festival	2013	Best Actor in a Direct-to-video	The Interpretation of a Dream	Nominated
	2016	Best Actor – Television Series	Shahrzad	Nominated
Jussi Awards	2021	Best Actor	Any Day Now	Won
Molins Horror Film Festival	2020	Best Actor	The Night	Won
Urban International Film Festival	2015	Best Actor in a Direct-to-video	The Interpretation of a Dream	Golden Statue