Shahi, who says she is a great-great-granddaughter of the 19th-century ruler, Fath Ali Shah Qajar, grew up speaking Persian as well as English. She said she never had much contact with the extended families of her immigrant parents, but “I like to celebrate where I come from and where my heritage lies,” she said.
Previously, Shahi played small roles in TV shows and a few movies, then moved on to playing recurring roles in Showtime’s “The L Word” (the L word is “lesbian”), where she portrayed a Mexican-American disc jockey, and in the NBC show “Life,” where she played a detective overcoming drug addiction. Shahi has also appeared on several lists of Hollywood’s most beautiful and sexiest actresses. She was ranked Number 90 on Maxim magazine’s “Hot 100 of 2005” list and moved up to Number 66 the following year. She also ranked Number 5 on the AfterEllen.com hot list in 2007.
In an interview with America.gov, the Iranian-American actress explained how she got her start performing. When she was just an eight-year-old living in Texas, Shahi’s parents entered her into the first of many beauty pageants. From there, she went on to sing in classical choirs, perform in musical theater and later went on to college in Dallas with aspirations of becoming an actress.
During a college production of the musical “Chicago,” Shahi’s fellow cast members encouraged her to try out to be a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys, the football team famed for its beautiful cheerleaders. She made the team. From that very public role, she got a job as an extra in a movie that was shooting in Dallas. But, more importantly, she received encouragement from the movie’s director, acclaimed filmmaker Robert Altman.
“I had no idea who he was, and for whatever reason he took a liking to me, probably because he sensed that I didn’t want anything from him or need anything from him,” Shahi told America.gov. “On the final day that he was there, he said, ‘What is it you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, I want to be an actress, but I just don’t know how to go about it out here.’ And he said, ‘You know, you need to move to [Los Angeles]. I think you have what it takes.’ And he gave me his office number and his cell number, and he said, ‘When you get there, call me. I want to help you.’”
Shahi and the filmmaker, who passed away in 2006, traded a few missed phone calls but when she learned who he was, she said she “became so intimidated that I never called him again.” Still, Shahi was determined to become an actress, and decided to take matters into her own hands. “I kind of just started making my own mark in Hollywood, as little as it is,” she said.
But it wasn’t just her beauty that landed her the lead role on “Fairly Legal.” Being pretty was never enough for Shahi. “Pretty girls are a dime a dozen in this town, so if you want to last, you have to have a little bit more than that,” she said. “I work hard, I continue to work hard, and I guess whenever it’s the right time, the right project and the right talent—when those three things meet and collide—I guess that’s when and why I’ve gotten things,” she said.
In “Fairly Legal,” Shahi will play the role of Kate Reed, a lawyer-turned-mediator, whom Shahi says resembles her in some ways. “Kate and I are very similar in the sense that we’re both very feisty, very sort of flirty people, like-to-grab-life … kind of girls,” Shahi said, adding that there are also major differences between her and Reed. “The part that we don’t have in common is Kate is emotionally incredibly immature…. She also doesn’t want to confront things in her life.… I’m very responsible when it comes to people’s emotions and to be able to confront things and all of that. I’ve been doing that since I was about eight,” she said.
Shahi’s Iranian father, Abbas Shahi, and her Spanish mother, whose Muslim name is Mahmonir, split when Shahi was young. She said that experience made her grow up too quickly. “My parents split up when I was pretty young, and my mother had three kids and had to take care of all of them by herself. And I was the middle child. So I grew up really quickly, and have, at times, what I think is too much maturity,” she said.
Now Shahi has a child of her own, something that makes her job as an actress all the more challenging. She said her work on “Fairly Legal” was especially demanding because she had to balance it with helping take care of her toddler son, Wolf, whom she had with her husband and fellow actor Steve Howey. Howey is best known for his role as Van Montgomery in the TV series “Reba.” He has also guest starred on “ER,” “The Drew Carey Show,” “Any Day Now” and “Twins” and has had roles in films like “Supercross,” “DOA: Dead or Alive” and “Bride Wars.”
In March, the USA Network will decide whether it will go for a second season. But regardless of whether or not the show will see a second season, Shahi’s face will still be on the big screens; she has supporting roles lined up in two upcoming films.