Navid Negahban

Navid Negahban is an Iranian-American actor, film producer, and director. He has established a wide-ranging career across television, feature films, voice acting, and behind-the-scenes filmmaking. He is widely recognized for playing high-profile characters in notable television projects, such as terrorist mastermind Abu Nazir in Homeland, Amahl Farouk or the Shadow King in Legion, and Abbas Mansuri in The Night Agent, alongside blockbuster feature films like the live-action remake of Aladdin.

Born in Mashhad, Iran, Negahban developed an early interest in the performing arts at eight years old after drawing laughter from a large audience while portraying an elderly character on stage. He departed Iran in 1985 at the age of seventeen, relocating first to Turkey and subsequently to Germany. During his eight-year residency in Germany, he worked with a local theater group before immigrating to the United States in 1993. Negahban is fluent in English, German, and Persian, and he later began learning French specifically for his role in Legion.

Throughout his early screen career, Negahban made appearances on several prominent television dramas, including The Shield, The West Wing, Lost, and CSI: Miami. He shared the screen on two occasions with Iranian-American actress Necar Zadegan, appearing in 24 and CSI: Miami. He similarly worked twice with actress Mozhan Marnò, co-starring in the series The Unit and playing the husband of her title character in the feature film The Stoning of Soraya M. In 2008, he provided his voice and physical likeness for the character Dr. Challus Mercer in the survival horror video game Dead Space.

Negahban achieved widespread critical acclaim for portraying antagonist Abu Nazir in Homeland. Following this breakout role, he engaged in diverse projects, including filming the spy thriller Damascus Cover, based on the Howard Kaplan novel, alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Olivia Thirlby, and John Hurt, playing Syrian General Sarraj. In 2018, he played General Abdul Rashid Dostum in the war drama 12 Strong, and in 2019 he portrayed the Sultan in the live-action adaptation of Aladdin. He also held major roles in television series such as Mistresses, FX's Legion during its second and third seasons, and The Old Man as Faraz Hamzad.

In more recent television work, Negahban appeared in the 2022 crime drama series The Cleaning Lady as Armenian mob leader Hayak Barsamian. In 2025, he joined Netflix's The Night Agent as Abbas Mansuri, an Iranian Ambassador to the UN stationed in New York. For this performance, his dialogue was delivered entirely in Persian with English subtitles to enhance the realism of the character.

Beyond acting, Negahban has earned recognition for his directorial, production, and voice work. He won the Best Actor Award at the 2011 Noor Iranian Film Festival for the 2009 short film Liberation, returning as an official festival judge in 2012. In 2017, he received a BAFTA Games Award nomination for Best Performer for his work in 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. As executive producer, his film Baba Joon secured five Ophir Awards, including Best Picture, from the Israeli Film Academy. Furthermore, his 2025 short film The Apple Tree, which he directed, won Best Short Film at the Japan Indies Film Festival.