Shahi to star in own series

Iran Times International July 30, 2010:by Grace Nasri

Sarah Shahi, a former Dal- las Cowboys cheerleader and reputed great great granddaughter of Fath Ali Shah, is the star of a new television drama called “Facing Kate,” which is to air on the USA Network this fall. Shahi—born Aahoo Jahan-zouz—will play the role of Kate, a divorced woman in San Francisco who leaves her job as a top lawyer after becoming frustrated with the bureaucracy and injustice of the legal system. Shifting her career 180 degrees, she takes a job as a mediator. Michael Trucco, from the film “Battlestar Galactica,” will star alongside Shahi as her ex-husband, Justin Patrick. The exact launch date for the show, which will feature 12 episodes, is still being worked out, but it is expected to premier sometime in the fall. “Facing Kate” is being filmed now in Vancouver although the show is set in San Francisco. As a result, the producers brought in an American postal service box and a San Francisco cable car kiosk box to use on the street where they film. But the show won’t be seen in Canada as the USA Network isn’t available north of the border. The show is from the creator Michael Sardo and Executive Producer Steve Stark, and will be produced by Universal Cable Prods. In an attempt to explain Shahi’s character, Sardo said, “She realized that truth and justice are not always being found in the courtroom. As a mediator, you lose a lot of constraints of the law; you’re a referee in a room with no rules.” The Iranian-American actress was born January 10, 1980, in Euless, Texas, near Dallas-Fort Worth, to an Iranian father and a Spanish mother who are now divorced. Rumors also swirl about Shahi’s family, as she is said to be the great-great granddaughter of the 19th-century Iranian monarch Fath Ali Shah Qajar, who took the throne when Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States. Shahi, who speaks Farsi fluently, has long been in the movie and television industry. She was interested in acting from a young age, and majored in theater and English at Southern Methodist University in Texas. She started down the celebrity road as a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys football team before turning her focus to acting. Her smashing beauty has been her key to Hollywood. Shahi made Maxim Magazine’s Hot 100 List in 2005 and 2006 as number 90 and 66 respectively. When Shahi relocated to Los Angeles, she landed numerous roles in TV series and films including: Life, The Sopranos, Supernatural, ER, Dawson’s Creek, Frasier, Alias, Boston Public, Rush Hour 3, Sleeper Cell and Old School. But Shahi is probably best known for her role as the Mexican-American Carmen de la Pica Morales in the Showtime drama “The L Word,” playing a lesbian role. She did not renew her contract with “The L Word” in the fourth season and instead, in October 2009, landed the lead role in “Facing Kate.” Filming began the following month. Shahi currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, actor Steve Howey. The two met when she guest starred on the show “Reba.” Shahi and Howey were engaged in June 2007 while vacationing in Hawaii, and married February 6, 2009 in Las Vegas. The couple welcomed their first child, William Wolf Howey, July 9, 2009.

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