Iranian-American actress Nazanin Boniadi plays a human healer named Bronwyn who has an ongoing romance with an Elven soldier, Arondir, played by Ismael Cruz Córdova.
Her character is new to the pantheon, created solely for the show, but thanks to her badass persona and adorable love story, she has been well appreciated on social media.
So, what do we know about the beautiful actress playing Bronwyn who was once rumoured to have dated Tom Cruise?
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Boniadi is no stranger to television having played diverse characters throughout her career.
The 42-year-old actress played Leyla Mir for 118 episodes of General Hospital starting in 2007, being nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series. Next, she found greater fame as Nora in 10 episodes of the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2011) and has also appeared in Homeland (2013), Scandal (2014) and Counterpart (2017).
Her film career has seen her play supporting roles in Charlie Wilson’s War (2008) and The Next Three Days (2010) as well as having a cameo as Amira Ahmed in Iron Man (2008). In 2018, she was seen in Hotel Mumbai opposite Armie Hammer and Dev Patel.
While she is grateful for the roles she has had, Boniadi still wants to push boundaries and avoid being typecast. “I’m grateful for every Middle Eastern role I’ve done. But it’s very limiting when people only look at you for your skin colour,” she told Time magazine.
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Her family fled from Iran to London when she was a baby
Born in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution, Boniadi’s family fled Tehran for London when she was only 20 days old.
“My parents were political refugees who fled to London when I was just 20 days old. They were opposed to the theocracy and didn’t want to raise their daughter in a social, political and legal climate that was growing increasingly oppressive towards women and girls,” she told Iranian Republic.
The once aspiring medical student graduated with honours in biology from the University of California, Irvine. She also won the Chang Pin-Chun Undergraduate Research Award for molecular research involving cancer treatment and heart transplant rejection, but changed her mind and pursued acting instead.
“Luckily, nine months after I made that decision, I got my SAG [Screen Actor’s Guild] card,” she told Time. Boniadi learned her craft at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
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Boniadi joined the Church of Scientology when she was 17 years old. It was also reported by Yahoo that her mum was also once a member.
Back in 2004, the aspiring actress was said to have auditioned for what she thought was a special humanitarian project for the church, but unknowingly was actually auditioning as girlfriend to mega Hollywood star Tom Cruise.
This all came out in a 2012 Vanity Fair report that stated that the Church of Scientology had been searching for Cruise’s next girlfriend after his break up from actress Penelope Cruz and his divorce with Nicole Kidman. The church reportedly held secret “auditions” in 2004, rounding up aspiring actresses like Boniadi.
Afterwards, church officials reportedly settled with Boniadi, with Vanity Fair also saying that she had to say “yes” to certain agreements.
“The job came with extensive training, a makeover (darker hair, better teeth) and confidentiality agreements – all before she ever set sights on her would-be paramour,” says the article.
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In 2015, another source reported the same peculiar incident. In her tell-all memoir titled Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, Hollywood actress (and ex-Scientologist) Leah Remini also wrote that Boniadi had a three-month relationship with the Mission: Impossible star before a Scientology official ended it.
According to Remini’s book, Boniadi was then “punished” by the church after she confided in a friend about her break-up with Cruise. “She wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone, particularly her Scientology friends, since she was considered a traitor. She was not allowed to go anywhere alone unless escorted by either church security, ethics staff, or a representative of Flag’s [Flag Service Organisation, a Scientology non-profit] President’s Office,” as quoted from Yahoo.
Boniadi has never publicly spoke about her involvement with Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology. Church officials and Cruise’s reps have also dismissed Remini’s and Vanity Fair’s comments as lies and hearsay.
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She is a passionate activist, too
Since 2008, Boniadi had worked with Amnesty International to “campaign for the rights of disenfranchised populations across the world, with a focus on the unjust conviction and treatment of Iranian youth, women and prisoners of conscience,” as quoted from Amnesty UK’s website.
The site also wrote that through her work, Boniadi had appeared in the UK Parliament, the US Capitol and German Bundestag. She had also penned opinions in several media outlets like The Washington Post, CNN, Defense One and The New York Times.
Boniadi told Iran Human Rights that she wants to be the “voice for the voiceless” inside Iran through her given platform as an actress.
“Many people have advised me to refrain from advocacy work, not only because it requires time away from my career, but also because it could deter people from employing me,” she said. “Certainly, it would be much more comfortable to avoid the inevitable criticism, scepticism and backlash that comes with any Iran-related advocacy, especially amidst the current political climate so fraught with a polarised diaspora. But for many of us expats whose loved ones suffered persecution, and who’ve been to Iran, silence is not an option.”
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She had a long audition for LOTR
In an interview with Collider recently, Boniadi shared that it took her four to five months to audition and get accepted for her role in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
“It was months and months. Four different auditions, one in person, three on tape because I was travelling around the world on various things. And when I got the news, it was a very short turnaround, so it was like, ‘You got the job! You’re moving to New Zealand in like three weeks! So you need to uproot your life and move to New Zealand.’ And, of course, I was beyond happy and excited and felt so blessed,” she said.
She said that she could also relate to her character Bronwyn, who is a healer, with her early medical studies and activism. She told Screenrant, “I felt like I could bring in my experience, I was pre-med, so I have sort of experience in the healing sciences and Bronwyn is a healer, and she’s also trying to liberate her people and I’m a long-time activist from my homeland, Iran.”
Nazanin Boniadi has a net worth of US$2 million, reports Celebrity Net Worth.
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