Rosie Malek-Yonan

Rosie Malek-Yonan
Actress, theatre director, and author
Nationality	Assyrian-American
Citizenship	United States
Occupation	Actress, author, director
Website	www.rosiemalek-yonan.com

Rosie Malek-Yonan is an American actress, author, director, public figure and activist of Assyrian ethnicity.

Born in Tehran, Malek-Yonan is a descendant of one of the oldest and most prominent Assyrian families, tracing her Assyrian roots back nearly 11 centuries. The Malek family originated from Jilu and eventually settled in the Assyrian Christian village of Geogtapa, in the Urmia region of northwestern Iran. Geogtapa was the largest Assyrian Christian village in the region and much of it belonged to the Malek-Yonan family with the oldest plot in the family graveyard dating back to 1100.

Malek-Yonan's father, George Malek-Yonan (1924-2014), an international attorney in Iran, was personally responsible for negotiating and procuring a seat for the Assyrians as a recognized Christian minority in the Iranian Parliament, a huge accomplishment for a people who had been without a formal country since the fall of the Assyria.

Malek-Yonan's mother, Lida Malek-Yonan (1928–2002) regarded as an activist and humanitarian, was equally influential in demanding recognition for Assyrian women in Iran by launching and presiding over the Assyrian Women's Organization which was the only officially recognized charter member of the Iranian Women's Association until the end of the Pahlavi dynasty.

During the Assyrian genocide of 1914–1918, Malek-Yonan's grandparents left their ancestral homeland in Urmia, as part of the "Great Exodus" from Urmia in March 1918. The Malek-Yonan family fled to Mesopotamia where her father was born in Baghdad, while Malek-Yonan's maternal grandmother fled to Russia where her mother was born in Rostov. Years later, both families returned to Tehran where her parents met and were married.

Malek-Yonan is a classically trained pianist, composer, actress, director, writer, documentary filmmaker and activist. She began studying piano at the age of four and while still in her teens, competed in and won many national piano competitions in Iran and attended the Tehran Conservatory of Music. In 1972 after winning a national piano competition in Iran, she was invited by Queen Farah Pahlavi to play at a Command Performance.