Leila Hatami

Leila Hatami is a well-known actress hailing from Iran, her birthplace. She was born in a cinema family to parents Ali Hatami, who was a legendary Iranian director, and Zari Khoshkam (name changed to Zahra Hatami), who was also a famous actress. When Leila was a child, she acted in many small roles in her father's movies. She did roles in many television series, as well as a film called Love Stricken, where she played the role of a princess. She graduated from high school with a major in Mathematics. Then, she went to Switzerland and stayed there for a while to continue her further schooling. She did her engineering in electronics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, that is located in Lausanne. Hatami always had an interest to learn new languages, and so she started studying French literature for a couple of years and became fluent in English, German, French, as well as her native Persian. Suddenly, her father got ill one day, so she had to return to Iran.

After finishing her studies and returning from Switzerland after a long gap, she again began to act. Her first major role was in the film ‘Leila’, where she played the role of a married lady who couldn't bear children and how that caused problems in her married life. Her performance in her debut movie was appreciated by the audience and received positive reviews from critics. At the 15th Fajr Film Festival, she was awarded the Diploma of Honor for Best Actress. Dariush Mehrjui directed Leila's first film and she continued acting in a couple more films, for which she got appreciation from the outside world too.

She then got married to Ali Mosaffa, who was her co-star in her debut movie, ‘Leila’. They have two children together- Mani, who was born in 2007, and Asal, who was born in 2008. Her next flick, Deserted Station, also became a hit, and at the Montreal Film Festival, she won the Best Actress Award. In 2005, she appeared in her husband's debut directorial movie, Portrait of a Lady Far Away. In the picture 'The Last Step', Hatami won the Best Actress Award in the Karlovy Vary Festival held in 2012. The costumes used in the movie, The Last Step, along with its sets, were designed by Leila, and at the Fajr Film Festival, she received a nomination for Best Production Design and Costume Design. That same year, Hatami gave another blockbuster movie, 'A Separation', for which the movie was honored in the category of the Best Foreign Film with the Academy Award, and also for the Best Actress in a Leading Role. She was honored with the Silver Berlin Bear Award at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.

In the year 2014, at the Cannes Festival, actress Leila kissed the President of Cannes on the cheek, which became a big outrage. Later, she apologized for hurting the feelings of her fellow Iran people, and stated that she thought him only like an old grandfather who was also like her host.