Today we’d like to introduce you to Shila Ommi.
Hi Shila, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Iran, and I had a beautiful and privileged life until the onset of the Islamic revolution of 1979, which caused us to flee our homeland – not just for basic freedoms that the new government was taking away – but literally for our lives. My father was one of the thousands of beautiful souls on the new regime’s torture and execution list.
As an exiled ten-year-old, I felt my parents’s sadness and trauma, losing dear friends every day. I also had my own challenges of dealing with undiagnosed ADHD while learning a new language and living in a new country. At 15, in the auditorium of Van Nuys High School, I discovered theatre, and my life was never the same.
I took a detour in my 20’s a pre-med at UCLA, studying Biological Anthropology, and working on a thesis on vervet monkey behavior – all to make my daddy proud. He passed away shortly after I graduated, and I rediscovered theatre. For the next couple of decades, I was the lead actress and co-artistic director of an LA based theatre company, and I toured the globe doing original plays in the Persian language for Iranians living in exile. I have since expanded my acting skills to film and television.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I began as a young, relatively attractive female in the late 80’s, I experienced a lot of sexual harassment- even from headshot photographers. That scared me. A lot of the movies back then were over-the-top sexual and felt misogynistic to me, and I never saw any representations of myself on the screen. There was also the catch-22 – that you can’t get an agent until you book enough TV/film, and you can’t book anything without an agent. And the few agents who were interested in me wanted me for their terrorist roster, and asked for headshots with hijab – I escaped a country that forces women to wear compulsory hijab, and it was a big turn off for me. So I didn’t feel I belonged in Hollywood, and I stuck to doing comedy plays in Persian, and wore fabulous clothes and played leading ladies for huge audiences of Iranians in diaspora.
My career in film and TV began relatively late in life. I find acting for the camera is surprisingly difficult compared to the stage. There are micro-expressions, deep thoughts, secrets, hidden emotions, and subtle nuances that the camera requires that stage actors can get away not exploring. But I really needed to acquire the confidence that theatre gave me in order to transition to film acting.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I can be seen playing Nahid Kamali on Apple TV’s espionage thriller, ‘Tehran’, – Season 3 is coming out in the spring – and also on Apple TV’s anthology series, ‘Little America’. I am the voice of Cinder Lumen in Disney and Pixar’s animated feature, ‘Elemental’.
For the past two years, I’ve been studying the Tannous Method of Sound Meditation, and I love providing therapeutic sound sessions for my friends and family.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I think for me 3 qualities have been essential.
Working hard, there is simply no other way.
Compassion is pretty much essential. For others. Definitely! And some days for yourself as well.
Loyalty is everything – that is unquestionable.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @ShilaOmmi
Image Credits
Theo and Juliet
