Reza Fazeli

Reza Fazeli — Biography

Reza Fazeli was born on 3 July 1935 in Tehran and died on 13 April 2009 in California. Known as an Iranian actor and film director, he was also a prominent figure in the anti-government opposition. He spent a year with Iran's imperial air force under the Shah, then left the country in 1953, living for a time around the Persian Gulf, Lebanon and Egypt before spending eight further years across France, Germany, Britain and the United States. Once back home, he worked steadily as an actor and director, both within the Iranian film industry and on international productions. When the 1979 revolution brought Islamic rule to Iran, he emigrated again and set up a company, KVC, to make documentaries critical of the new regime. From 2002 to 2005 he was on staff at the US-based AZADI TV ("Freedom TV"), a broadcaster opposing Iran's clerical government, and afterward carried on his political work at another Persian-language outlet, Pars TV.