Personal details
Born:
- Birthday: 1958-08-16
- Born Place: Teheran, Iran
Bijan Daneshmand
Bijan Daneshmand (Persian: بیژن دانشمند, born August 16, 1958) is a highly respected Iranian-born English actor, filmmaker, and artist, currently based in London. He moved to England at the age of ten for his early education, graduating from King's College London before pursuing his passion for the arts. Daneshmand trained at the London Centre for Theatre Studies and the Philippe Gaulier School in Paris, and later earned an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts. Before dedicating himself fully to acting and art in 2003, he founded the award-winning boutique hotel, The Leonard, in central London. He has built a prolific career in both film and television, often portraying commanding or intellectual characters, and is known for his fluency in English, French, and Persian, as well as his ability to read Arabic. Daneshmand has worked with acclaimed directors such as Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, and Susanne Bier, and his extensive filmography includes roles in major international productions like Body of Lies (2008), Munich (2005), Green Zone (2010), and the BAFTA-winning horror film Under the Shadow (2016). On television, he has appeared in successful series such as The Night Manager (2016), Deep State (2018), and The Diplomat (2023). As a filmmaker, his co-produced and starring debut, 20 Fingers (2004), won the Best Film Venezia Cinema Digitale award at the Venice Film Festival, and he wrote and directed the avant-garde film A Snake's Tail (2006). More recently, he starred as the family patriarch Ali Reza in the critically acclaimed film The Persian Version (2023), which won the Audience Award and Best Screenplay at the Sundance Film Festival.
