Leila Farzad

Leila Farzad

Born: December 30, 1981
Leila Effat Farzad (Arabic: ليلى عفت Persian: لیلا عفت فرزاد; born December 30, 1981) is a British actress. She is known for her role as Naomi Jones in the Sky Atlantic series I Hate Suzie (2020–2022), which earned her a British Academy Television Award nomination.

Farzad was born in London to Iranian parents. She was inspired to pursue acting by National Theatre productions her aunt took her to see, however, her parents requested she get a degree from Oxbridge first. She first studied Modern Languages at Worcester College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Italian Literature. She then went on to train at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which she said "felt like home".

Farzad began her career with a voice role in the third and fourth series of the Channel 5 animated children's series Peppa Pig. She made her live action television debut in an episode of the ITV police procedural Law & Order: UK and her professional stage debut as the titular role in Miriam. Gonzalez. Durantez. at Theatre503. This was followed by roles in Blue Remembered Hills at Chichester Festival Theatre, the all female Julius Caesar at the Bridge Theatre in London, Richard II at Shakespeare's Globe. She also appeared in the ITV anthology Innocent.

Farzad landed her first main role was I Hate Suzie as Naomi Jones, Suzie's (Billie Piper) manager and friend. The series was released in 2020 on Sky Atlantic and HBO Max to critical acclaim, and Farzad was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress. Farzad reprised her role in I Hate Suzie's second installment titled I Hate Suzie Too in 2022. Also that year, Farzad joined the cast of Avenue 5 for its second season and appeared alongside Josh Hartnett in The Fear Index, also on Sky. In 2023, she starred in the BBC crime drama Better.

Movies for Leila Farzad...

The Marvels
Title: The Marvels
Character: Talia
Released: November 8, 2023
Type: Movie
Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau. Together, this unlikely trio must team up and learn to work in concert to save the universe.
bee
Title: Better
Character: Lou Slack
Released: February 13, 2023
Type: TV
After a family tragedy is narrowly averted, a corrupt police detective undergoes a painful moral awakening and decides to put right twenty years of wrongdoing but satisfying her newfound conscience won't be straightforward.
bee
Title: The Fear Index
Character: Gabby Hoffman
Released: February 10, 2022
Type: TV
Dr. Alex Hoffman, an American ex-pat physicist, creates an AI-driven system that exploits fear in the financial markets and operates at lightning speed to make big returns. But on the day of launch, Alex’s sanity is shaken after he is viciously attacked at his home by a man who knows all of his security codes. After more unexplained occurrences, Alex becomes convinced he’s being framed.
bee
Title: Landscapers
Character: Beckett, QC
Released: December 6, 2021
Type: TV
A seemingly ordinary British couple become the focus of an extraordinary investigation when two dead bodies are discovered in the back garden of a house in Nottingham.
bee
Title: I Hate Suzie
Character: Naomi
Released: August 27, 2020
Type: TV
Suzie Pickles, a star on the wane, has her whole life upended when her phone is hacked and a photo of her emerges in an extremely compromising position.
bee
Title: Avenue 5
Character: Elena
Released: January 19, 2020
Type: TV
40 years in the future, space captain Ryan Clark and the crew of the luxury space cruise ship Avenue 5 navigate disgruntled passengers and unexpected events after experiencing technical difficulties onboard.
bee
Richard II
Title: Richard II
Character: Queen
Released: April 21, 2019
Type: Movie
Beset by problems at home and abroad, a capricious king is forced to relinquish his ‘hollow crown’. As his supporters abandon him and his power trickles away, Richard reflects with startling eloquence on the disintegration of his status and identity. Adjoa Andoh and Lynette Linton direct the first ever company of women of colour in a Shakespeare play on a major UK stage, in a post-Empire reflection on what it means to be British in the light of the Windrush anniversary and as we leave the European Union.
bee
Title: This Time with Alan Partridge
Character: Clarissa Hoskin
Released: February 25, 2019
Type: TV
Alan is handed a career lifeline - the chance to stand in as co-host on This Time, a weekday magazine show. But can he capitalise on the opportunity?
bee
Title: Innocent
Character: Janice Parker
Released: May 14, 2018
Type: TV
After seven years in prison, David Collins is acquitted of the murder of his wife. Now, he must fight to rebuild his shattered life while police search for the real murderer.
bee
National Theatre Live: Julius Caesar
Title: National Theatre Live: Julius Caesar
Character: Decius Brutus, Conspirator
Released: March 22, 2018
Type: Movie
Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat’s popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital. Nicholas Hytner’s production will thrust the audience into the street party that greets Caesar’s return, the congress that witnesses his murder, the rally that assembles for his funeral and the chaos that explodes in its wake.
bee
Title: Black Mirror
Character: Mona Javadi
Released: December 4, 2011
Type: TV
Over the last ten years, technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives before we've had time to stop and question it. In every home; on every desk; in every palm - a plasma screen; a monitor; a smartphone - a black mirror of our 21st Century existence.
bee
Title: The Decameron
Character: Stratilia
Released: December 31, 1969
Type: TV
Set in 1348 when the Black Death, the deadliest pandemic in human history that killed as many as 200 million people, strikes hard in Florence, a handful of nobles are invited to retreat with their servants to a grand villa in the Italian countryside and await the pestilence with a lavish holiday. But as social rules wear thin, what starts as a wine-soaked sex romp in the hills of Tuscany descends into an all-out scramble for survival.