Essa Zahir

Essa Zahir, born in 1967 is a British actor of Iranian origin. He studied art before discovering his real passion was in acting. He took acting classes at various schools, but it wasn't until going to The Lee Strasberg Method Institute in the early 1990's that he found his path under the tutorship of the late British actor Michael Billington and the American actress Marianna Hill. His acting debut came in 1991 - an Actor's Showcase for which he was critically acclaimed in the local theatre review. A string of short films followed, one of which the young Geri Halliwell co-stared alongside him in "Foggy Notion" 1995. He did mostly bit parts for film and television between 2000 and 2007. "For a moment, freedom" directed by Arash T. Riahi went on to win 23 international film nominations & awards and the writer/director wrote Essa in his political tale having only seen his audition tape for "Women Without Men" directed by Shirin Neshat who won 'The Silver Lion' at Can in 2009. Playing the part of 'Amir Khan'- has been Essa's favorite role. As an interesting turnaround and very unpredictably, Essa embraced his art roots with a passion as a painter in 2014, holding his first formal art exhibition in London at New Artist Fair Summer Exhibition.