Sepideh Moafi

Early life and education

Sepideh Moafi was born in September 1985 in a refugee camp in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. Prior to her birth, her parents had fled Iran following the Islamic Revolution. After two years in Turkey and then Germany, where Moafi's parents sought political asylum and claimed refugee status, Moafi's family were granted visas to move to the United States. Moafi is an American citizen.

During her childhood years, she studied opera and was later pulled into musical theatre and jazz. Moafi started singing at 15 years old, and within a year had obtained a full scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she graduated in 2007.

Moafi attended the University of California Irvine to study acting, later graduating with an MFA in 2013.

Career

In 2013, Moafi received her first on-screen credit in a guest-starring role as Aaliya Zaki in the tenth episode of season four of CBS's Blue Bloods.

In 2015, Moafi landed what would be her breakout role, a recurring role as Loretta in HBO's The Deuce, an American drama television series created by David Simon and George Pelecanos exploring the stories of sex workers in 1970s-80s New York. Before filming the pilot, Simon met Moafi for a coffee date, where they discussed the premise of The Deuce and Loretta's arc within the show. While her character on The Deuce had been planned early on, Moafi subsequently landed a lead role in Notorious (a show which was to be filmed in Los Angeles) after meeting with Simon and before the pilot of The Deuce was filmed. Moafi wrote a letter to the executive producers of The Deuce, Simon, Pelecanos and Nina Kostroff Noble hoping that they would still let her be a part of The Deuce despite her regular gig on Notorious. The executive producers on The Deuce let Moafi continue to be a part of their show and worked around her schedule as The Deuce was mainly filmed in New York. However, as a result, Loretta's arc could not be fulfilled as initially planned and had to go a different direction because of Moafi's scheduling conflicts and she was only in three episodes in the first season of The Deuce. The pilot of The Deuce was shot in 2015 and the first season was shot a year later.

In 2016, Moafi starred as Megan Byrd on ABC's Notorious. The show is based on real-life criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos and Larry King Live news producer Wendy Walker. Moafi's character is a junior producer and booker on the fictional number one cable news show Louise Herrick Live and her character is considered to be the number-two to Julia George, played by Piper Perabo. While the show originally landed a 13-episode first season, ABC cut the first season to 10 episodes and the show was cancelled by ABC after one season.

After Notorious was cancelled, Moafi continued to appear in her recurring role as Loretta on The Deuce, and her character was made a series regular in season 3, the final season. Moafi's character on The Deuce was initially a sex-worker working on the streets of New York and later became an anti-pornography activist, which was one of the main reasons Moafi wanted to continue to be a part of The Deuce despite her scheduling conflicts. To prepare for her role as Loretta, Moafi did research into the history of New York by reading books such as pimp and sex workers' memoirs and studied vintage porn to help her understanding of the historical context that the show was set in. Moafi has stated that The Deuce has changed and influenced her relationship and view of the porn industry after the stories portrayed in the show.

Personal life

In 2019, Moafi penned a first person essay sharing her experience as a refugee. In 2021, Moafi was a special guest on Girls Write Now, a writing and mentoring organization for girls and gender-expansive teens. Moafi hosted a program titled Belonging: From Refugee to Hollywood as part of the Summer Salon series in February 2021.

Moafi is a human rights advocate, and serves as an Ambassador to the International Rescue Committee.

Filmography