Background
Akhavan was born in New York City in 1983. Her father has not returned to Iran since the 1980s, though Akhavan occasionally visited family overseas as a child.
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Desiree Akhavan
Edit ProfileEducation
Akhavan studied Film and Theatre at Smith College, a women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she was "a bit of a loner". After graduating in 2007, she studied film directing as a graduate student at New York University"s Tisch School of the Arts. She also spent a year studying abroad at Queen Mary, University of London.
Career
She is best known for her 2014 feature film debut, Appropriate Behavior. Both of Akhavan"s parents immigrated to the United States following the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Akhavan has stated in interviews that they now identify as American.
As a child, Akhavan lived in New Jersey before her family moved to Rockland, New New York
During this period of time, Akhavan struggled with feelings of loneliness: "My life was in New York City but I would sleep in the suburbs and I didn’t know anyone there. I didn’t have friends and I didn’t have a life, other than watching television and movies." Akhavan has attributed her first experiences with American culture through watching television shows and films.
She began writing plays when she was 10 years old and began acting in plays at 13 years old. Education Personal life Akhavan identifies herself as a bisexual woman and a Brooklynite.
She has a brother who is a paediatric urologist.
