Sarah Shahi Parents: Meet Abbas Jahansouzshahi and Mahmonir Soroushazar – Sarah Shahi went to Trinity High School and then Southern Methodist University. During her time at SMU, she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega. Shahi was crowned Miss Fort Worth in 1997.

Despite having never cheered before, she joined the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (1999-2000) squad in the hopes of becoming an actress. She later relocated to Los Angeles.

Shahi met director Robert Altman while working as an extra on the set of Dr. T and the Women in Texas. Altman encouraged her to move to Hollywood, where she landed roles in several series, including Alias, Dawson’s Creek, Reba, and Supernatural.

She played DJ Carmen de la Pica Morales, a supporting character on The L Word, which she joined in its second season.

Shahi debuted at number 90 on the Maxim “Hot 100” list in 2005, rising to number 66 in 2006 and 36 in 2012. In October 2012, she was featured on the cover of Maxim’s ‘TV’s Hottest Girls’ issue. In 2007, she was ranked fifth on the AfterEllen.com hot list.

She played Farah in the second season of Sleeper Cell, and she also appeared in Season 6b of HBO’s The Sopranos in 2007 as Sonya Aragon, a stripper and college student who spends a weekend with Tony after a death in his family.

She had a small role in Rush Hour 3 in 2007 as Zoe, a scantily clad rich girl pursued by Chris Tucker’s character, Detective Carter.

On NBC’s Chicago Fire, Shahi was cast as a recurring love interest for Taylor Kinney’s character Lt. Kelly Severide in 2012. She appeared in the second season episode “Relevance” as Sameen Shaw, a recurring character on Person of Interest.

CBS President Nina Tassler announced in 2013 that Shahi would be added as a series regular for the show’s third season.

Shahi and the show’s producers announced her maternity leave following January 7, 2015, episode of Person of Interest.

Sarah Shahi Parents: Meet Abbas Jahansouzshahi and Mahmonir Soroushazar

Her father is known as Abbas Jahansouzshahi, and her mother is known as Mahmonir Soroushazar. Her parents divorced when she was ten (10) years old.

Her mother was known to be an interior designer. Her father is Iranian. Two years before the Iranian Revolution, her father’s family fled Iran.

Her father, who worked at the American embassy in Iran, was sentenced to death when the previous Shah’s regime fell apart in 1979, but he was able to flee the country.

Her mother was born in Spain, the daughter of an Iranian father and a Spaniard. Aahoo, her given name, means ‘gazelle’ in Persian.

Shahi changed her name to Sarah after hearing a song called “Sarah” in second grade because she was “tormented” by other children about her birth name, Aahoo. She grew up speaking Persian in addition to English at her father’s request. Shahi’s parents began entering her in beauty pageants when she was eight years old.