Desiree Akhavan

Desiree Akhavan
Born	1984 (age 32–33) New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Filmmaker, screenwriter, actor
Known for	Appropriate Behavior

Desiree Akhavan (1984) is an Iranian-American film director, producer, screenwriter and actress based in New York. She is best known for her 2014 feature film debut, Appropriate Behavior.

Akhavan was born in New York City in 1984. Both of Akhavan's parents immigrated to the United States following the Iranian Revolution in 1979; Akhavan has stated in interviews that they now identify as American. Her father has not returned to Iran since the 1980s, though Akhavan occasionally visited family overseas as a child. As a child, Akhavan lived in New Jersey before her family moved to Rockland, New York. As a commuting student, Akhavan attended the Horace Mann School, an independent prep school in the Bronx, for her high school years. During this period of time, Akhavan struggled with feelings of loneliness: "My life was in New York City but I would sleep in the suburbs and I didn’t know anyone there. I didn’t have friends and I didn’t have a life, other than watching television and movies."

Akhavan has attributed her first experiences with American culture through watching TV shows and films. She began writing plays when she was 10 years old and began acting in plays at 13 years old.

Akhavan studied Film and Theatre at Smith College, a women’s college in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she was "a bit of a loner". After graduating in 2007, she studied film directing as a graduate student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She also spent a year studying abroad at Queen Mary, University of London.

Akhavan made her first short film Two Drink Minimum while studying in London as a graduate student. In 2010, she wrote and directed the short film Nose Job.

Akhavan has regularly appeared in her own work since after writing, directing, and acting in the lesbian-themed web series The Slope., for which she and Ingrid Jungermann, her creative partner, were named to Filmmaker's 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2012. The series premiered in 2011.

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