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[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome back to the Theatre Podcast and to this ongoing takeover from The Kite Runner. I can't wait to share this episode with you with Azita Ghanizada. She continues to break so many barriers as an actor, an advocate, and basically is an all-around amazing person who can't stop, won't stop. You have to check out her TEDx talk about her experiences as a child and being a political asylum seeker from Afghanistan. It's this incredible story and the link to that is in the show notes. So check that out after you listen to this episode. Find me online on Instagram and Twitter at Theatre underscore podcast on TikTok at The Theatre Podcast. Leave a rating and a review wherever you're listening now.

Go backwards and forwards in the feed. Make sure that you've checked out all of the other episodes from The Kite Runner Takeover and go see the show. Just an amazing show. So now everybody, please enjoy this episode with Azita Ghanizada. I'm incredibly excited to introduce our guest today, a political asylum seeker from Afghanistan herself. She's broken many cultural barriers in the entertainment industry. In Hollywood, she's got a recurring role on the CBS show United States of Al. And in addition to Freeform's Good Trouble and HBO's Ballers, she is also the founder of MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition, an ambassador for women for women international, and is now the first woman of Afghan descent to originate a role on Broadway. Holy crap, Azita Ghanizada. Welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[1:44] Azita Ghanizada: Thank you so much. You forgot a couple of things. I sit on the National Council for Welcome.us and I'm the SAG-AFTRA, Middle Eastern North African National Committee Chair.

[1:53] Alan Seales: Okay. So I normally start out the episodes, I'm like, oh, let's talk about your childhood. And then normally that's the easy stuff. But that's the heavy stuff of this episode. I want to save that. We're going to ease into that. So I actually love the SAG-AFTRA part of this because what a lot of people don't talk about or what they don't just know about before they get into this themselves is that the show business is a business, right? And so you get into TV and film contracts and theater contracts and you're negotiating contracts. These are legal documents that represent you, that represent your employers and whatnot. And so now for the first time in how many years you advocated and got SAG to add a category? You tell this whole story because I find it fascinating.

[2:48] Azita Ghanizada: Thanks, Alan. Yeah. So in 2017, we achieved a landmark achievement in labor contracts, the SAG-AFTRA AMPTP TV theatrical contracts, which is a big negotiating thing. This is really big. We go on strike, we don't go on strike. I mean, these are really massive. It's a massive union, produces a massive labor organization. And we, myself, kind of began this lobbying effort to create a new designation for Middle Eastern North African performers in the hiring contracts. Because we are considered Caucasian or not considered at all in the U.S. Census and in those boxes that you check, when diversity really became a touchpoint in conversations around film and TV and theater and stories, we were completely left out.

And as an actress since 2004, I've been a SAG-AFTRA card carrier since 2004 and working nonstop. I've been primarily a working actor for 18 years. There was this new loophole where I wasn't getting the same jobs I always got. And I was coming out of being a series regular on Alphas and testing for a bunch of pilots and got one and then was told I was white at the table.

[4:11] Yes. The casting directors were like, you're considered white by this television network because you don't have a box. And that seemed just outrageous to me on so many levels. It seemed like an excuse to continue to keep us behind, to keep us from flourishing from one girl who's been able to never play a terrorist or a refugee and play the girl next door is now being asked all the time to put on an accent and play these kind of more stereotypical, more marginalized roles. And I didn't understand and I didn't think it was fair. And so I began to figure out how we could change that. And I found a MENA category in the U.S. Census. And we ended up lobbying and talking to the producers and a lot of actors joined my cause.

A lot of MENA actors went and also spoke out against this. And we ended up drafting a new hiring contract for the first time in 37 years. And that's no small feat that ended up influencing multiple things. It's on the equity contract now MENA is as well as throughout the Oscars new inclusion standards. We've got a Writers Guild Middle Eastern committee. We've got the MENA committee at SAG-AFTRA. We now have all the networks and various companies, studios, organizations reaching out to us understanding that MENA is a global market and it's an identity and not a monolith that so many people have wanted to turn into either just being Muslim or just being something that is maligned or scary. And it's like, no, it's Azita.

There's a thousand of me and one shitty bad guy and that's culture across all cultures. It doesn't matter. There's a thousand Allen's and then there's one shitty Allen. And that's culture. That's society. That's the world we navigate. You're not responsible for every Allen who does something crappy in this world. And we aren't responsible for people that do something crappy from our part of the world. And we had to create a differentiation of like, no, we're U.S. citizens. One in five of us are entrepreneurs. We all don't speak in accents. We were raised here. We're highly educated. We're contributors to society and science and education and sports and influencing and the arts. And so, yeah, we built that category. And I launched my organization, MAC, to support educating people about what MENA is and who MENA people are and how to include us in this very important now D.I. work.

[6:41] Alan Seales: That's incredible. So MENA is Middle Eastern, North African.

[6:45] Azita Ghanizada: Yeah. We like to largely align to like a SWANA definition because it includes Afghanistan and Turkey and Armenia. And so it's not quite what the U.S. census definition was. Ours for diversity, equity and inclusion is a little different because it's a visual medium. Right. So it's like everybody that kind of looks like us and that plays these kinds of roles.

[7:06] Alan Seales: That's so cool. So then there's if I understand it right, there's like tax. Is it tax implications or budget implications, depending on how many of certain cultures you have in your production? I mean, the whole backstory behind this is fascinating.

[7:22] Azita Ghanizada: You know, I think that people started to be held responsible. And then what my organization was able to do is really to show data of how erased we are on television and film. We're just completely erased. And then when we are seen 50 percent to 78 percent of the time, it's as a terrorist. So we were able to show people their report cards of like, this is how you guys. And it's very interesting because culture and storytelling, that's always, you know, we're the ones that hold society accountable for like what's going on in the world. But when the storytelling is so maligned about one culture, any culture, you know, whether that's Latin X or black or white or whatever it is, if we were consistently maligning white people as school shooters or neo-Nazis 80 percent of the time on television and film, then the implications of that would be, you know, incredible.

It would be impactful to the way that people viewed white men in society is scary. And so we were able to kind of show people that this is what you're doing and they're still kind of doing it. We still have to fight for inclusion in a way that's safe and honorable and balanced. And there are tax implications and there are actually, you know, audiences, diverse audiences want to see diverse casts and shows that have, you know, just a plethora of what the world looks like in it. Those are the shows that do the best. Those are the shows that have the highest ratings. Those are the films that have the biggest box office turnout. So it's not me saying, oh, we need this. It's like it's, you know, audiences want to feel reflected in some way, big and small. And that drives people to the show and that drives people to the theater and that drives people to the seats in the movies.

[9:05] Alan Seales: That's a level of confirmation bias. I want to I want to posit it because if the if it's white men who are primarily driving the industry and primarily producing the industry and primarily influencing the contracts, then they don't realize what they what they're not seeing and what they're not including because their bias, their unconscious bias, is to continue to interact with familiarity. Right. And again, I remember I was reading something to prepare for this that you were talking about, like, just not seeing anybody like you on on screen or anything. And on top of all of this, coming from a culture where acting was very frowned upon. So now I actually want to get into the childhood a little bit, because there's a lot to unpack here and go as deep as you're comfortable going. But I watched your whole your TED talk. Just absolutely amazing. I'll put the link in the show notes because just everybody needs to see it. You don't know your birthday.

[10:11] Azita Ghanizada: No, you know. Okay, let me just go back to your confirmation bias, because I want to stand up for people, because I inherently believe that people are good and can do better. I think that what people don't know is they don't have the information. And I think when you teach people and you go, I'm not like angry, I just want you to know what you're doing. And they go, oh, snap, we got to fix this. And that's usually like seven out of 10 times, you know. So I just just say that that confirmation bias and unconscious bias, once it's kind of shown to people, to me, to you, to anybody, once we become aware of it, we have the ability to change our frame of thinking. So that was just I just wanted to go back to that point.

Thank you. That's very important. My childhood was very difficult. I actually, you know, feel bound to the respect of my family to not even divulge all of its difficulties, because it's also their story. And I can only speak from what I went through life trying to achieve or trying to be. And it's very funny, because this play is bringing up so much of that again. The becoming vulnerable within the cultural dynamic, living this play out every single night, eight times a week, is reconnecting me to pieces of myself that have long been forgotten. And it's a wonderful exploration of remembering, because I unfortunately disassociated so much of my life to protect myself. And I threw myself into achievements, right?

As you rattled off, right? Like that started long ago. And you heard that a little bit in my TED talk that I, I worked so hard to be accepted. Because one, I was not accepted. And I wanted to fit in. And so the way that I thought to fit in was to just be the best at whatever I could do and to lead and to inspire. But I also did it as a way to survive. And as you get older, and you're given the opportunity to undo some of the things that you look at, and you go, God, that's, I thought that was like a positive of mine. Like, I'm such a go getter. And I get this done and that done. And then to sit with oneself and to sit with counsel and learn that that's a way that you've hidden from your own heart. Because your heart has been hurt. And that it's the strength is not in the achievements, but it's in your vulnerability. It's in your sharing your story.

[12:55] Azita Ghanizada: It's in the being brave enough to tell someone else that they don't have to do everything to be needed and wanted. They just have to be themselves. So I think that, you know, wanting to be an artist and coming from where I came from, I think inherently there's a purpose in it. I don't think it's to like, it's never been like, oh, I want to be famous or I want to be on Billboard or whatever. The purpose is in the coming back to myself. And it's the learning how to really be in my heart and how to connect. And this experience on a stage with 700 people every night, you know, the bow is the hardest part for me, because I feel so vulnerable in front of everybody bowing with them. And I just I want to go out and hug everybody and say, thank you for sharing this with us.

Thank you for being here with me. So it's been really interesting. I think that being an artist and for my culture, which is very frowned upon, even though we are some of the greatest storytellers of all time. I think that it's such a deepening of reconnecting to yourself. And I'm so grateful to be on this path.

[14:12] Alan Seales: It sounds like you've done a lot of work introspectively, and I am a huge supporter of therapy and mental health and whatnot. So I've always said that theater is your chosen family. Right. And there's so many reasons why people can decide to become an actor. And through my own therapy, I have realized that there's a lot about myself that I'm attracted to in acting because it's validation and it's the literal like you did a good job. Clap, clap, clap, clap. Immediate feedback that you're good enough in this moment. And where does that come from? That's a relationship with parents and other things that have happened and like so much beyond. And the most successful actors that I see successfully working are the ones that have discovered what you were just talking about, which was the vulnerability and allowing yourself the safety, the comfortability, allowing yourself, not the audience, but yourself to go to these places with you. Because if you go there and you're comfortable, the audience is going to be right there with you.

[15:34] Azita Ghanizada: Yeah. Right. Yeah. So I was working with John Marklin, who's an acting coach, just a little bit on a part of the play that I wanted to feel was interesting and new and kind of exploring it. And, you know, there's some things in the play that I want more for her. You know, I've advocated for her since the play came to me. And that's my job. My job is to advocate for my character and, you know, be her biggest supporter and fan and just try to connect all the dots for her. You know, John said to me, I was like, you know, sometimes it feels just grounded and free and flowy. And sometimes it feels like I'm working harder than I should be. And he's like, yeah, that's what it is. And that's what it's going to be every night for 100 nights.

You know, some nights it's going to feel like this and some nights it's going to feel like that. And some, you know, and that's the truth. The thing about acting, you know, is that if you want the validation from it, you're going to get kicked down. You're going to get punted because you're not for everybody. Your story, your way of telling your story is what makes you so special. But that doesn't mean it's going to align with 10,000 people. It's going to align with 6,000 people and 4,000 people are like, it was good. But some people are going to love it. It's going to be their story. I mean, there have been Afghan girls and girls from that Swana region and high school girls. Actually, we had like high school girls that when I came out were like crying and clapping.

And I was like, oh, what? Like they're like, she's so strong. And like, and I was like, oh, that's right. This isn't about me telling this story to a mirror. This is about me telling the story for these girls. Right. So there might just be one in the audience. There might be 50 in that audience. But it's just it's for her that night. And that's the thing that I connect to. It's not for all 700. It's for the one if she's in there. My story's for her. And I think when you can accept that like, you're not for everybody. We're just not like we can try to be but that's false. That's inauthentic. Like, you know, we have to create from our heart. And we have to have integrity and truth in that creation. And if we live and operate from that place of truth, then nobody can hurt us with they're not validating us. Because it's my truth.

[18:33] Alan Seales: You have a good therapist.

[18:34] Azita Ghanizada: I do, actually.

[18:40] Alan Seales: You have a great therapist.

[18:42] Azita Ghanizada: Jordan Marks, do you hear that? Jordan Marks. I yeah, there's a level of communication, a level of vulnerability and openness that you have with people like this when they're open to, I guess, hearing this sort of feedback and to hearing they were always trying to be better. And that's the line from the play, right? There's a way to be good again. There's always a way to be good again. And that's from The Kite Runner. And so like, we all need to take that with us. Whether it's this hour, this day, this week, whatever it is, we can always try to improve and learn and be better. There's a way to be good again. And redemption and everything, a family. God, I love this. I love the show. Can you tell?

[19:29] Azita Ghanizada: Yeah, I love this show, too. It's such a moving play. And there's so many themes in it that like, I mean, Khaled, first of all, the source material is unbelievable. There's so much poetry and so much storytelling in that book that has ripped people's hearts wide open. And the play has been adapted in a way that stays very truly aligned to the book and tells the story crisply and as cleanly as possible so that the audience that loves the book will understand and connect and reconnect. And even those that haven't read the book, I mean, our audiences are amazing. It's been a gift to be with them. But there's so many themes in the book that you hear, shame and guilt. I have guilt. I have shame. But I have courage to want to be chosen for me and to walk away from someone that doesn't choose me and to know who I am and to try and choose me regardless.

There's ways to, even if you have failed someone in your life and that guilt has weighed heavily on you, there are ways to be good again. And I think that the human themes explored throughout the play have affected everyone in the audience. There's something that everyone connects to in one way, shape, form or the other.

[21:01] Azita Ghanizada: Somebody was saying to me, even when we talk about, there's an active genocide against Hazaras in Afghanistan. They are systemically trying to erase them from society. And we see that a little bit in this play. It's not really spoken of. And someone said to me, a white woman in her late 30s was just like, I don't understand that riff, right? But I understand what it's like to not like somebody because they're not the same as you. And look at your own bias and your own racism or the racism that you see. And that was something that I was like, oh, how interesting because I'm so Afghan that I understand the story in the way that it's shared. And for her, she responded to the racism that they were experiencing, that Hassan was experiencing in a way that was like, yeah, why are they picking bully?

Why do we bully people? And so I mentioned this meme to her that I saw on Instagram where it says, what's the deal with bullies? Why are you so mad that I'm ugly? Bullies suck. They make no sense. But yeah, it doesn't matter. There's something in the play for everybody. And that's why I love it.

[22:25] Alan Seales: Is it hard for you to get through the show eight times a week? And is it like the same moments for you that sort of hit close to home or is it different things each night?

[22:30] Azita Ghanizada: It's different things each night. And I've said this in some other interviews, but I didn't want to have an Afghan wedding. I don't really, I'm not really somebody who's been like, I want to get married. That's not really, I wanted to, I had to rebuild myself as a little person into the adult and the woman that I'm becoming. So I wasn't like, I want to get married. That wasn't my thing. It was like, I want to feel safe and whole and like loved and creative. And I want to know that my life has purpose. And if that's a marriage, that's a marriage. Like it wasn't not, but it just wasn't the thing. And I really walked away from kind of cultural and traditional obligations by becoming an artist, by being on my own.

I've been on my own since I was 17, which is pretty much unheard of in our culture. And I didn't want to have that experience. And now I wear the green dress and I walk out to Austalboro 130 times this summer and fall and I kiss that Quran. And when I kiss the Quran, I cry and I'm not supposed to cry, but it's so moving that I'm having this lived out experience over and over again. And it's special and it's beautiful and it's weird. And it's just all connected. And my mom gets a, you know, a kick out of it that she sees me in that green dress. She's coming to the plane. She said, Oh, should I bring my green dress? Please, mom, please wear your wedding dress.

[24:14] Alan Seales: Everyone knows that you're my mom. So she just wants to make sure it's clear.

[24:17] Azita Ghanizada: That'll be amazing. So just come on down September 23rd.

[24:24] Alan Seales: She's proud. She's got to be proud though. I, well, okay. So that's a question then is from the family perspective, right? You've come over to America, political, you get political asylum. You've, I've heard you speak in another interview too, that like, you had trouble getting your citizenship because you didn't have paperwork. You didn't have your birth certificate. Very similar to what's going on in the actual story of The Kite Runner. And so now has, has the, I mean, like, I guess your family as a whole, have they come to realize that like, this is great. This is amazing. You're, you're taking care of yourself. Or was there a little bit of like butting heads for a while?

[25:01] Azita Ghanizada: There was butting heads for a while in the beginning. You know, first of all, they're terrified. You know, what is an actor? You know, they don't know what Broadway is. You know, that was like, was like, I'm going to go do, I'm going to go make my Broadway debut. I'm going to go make my Broadway debut. They're like, Oh, is it on television? Like, how do we see it? Like, you know, it's such, it's not our, first of all, our stories aren't told. Right. And it's also something that we're not like, Oh, let's go see this. It's just so far out of like our cultural norm. And so one, there's so much pride and acceptance. And a lot of my family has come and my family, my younger, my cousins, sophisticated, successful. I mean, work at Google, run think tanks. Like, I mean, smart, successful family members. This was their first Broadway play.

[25:50] Azita Ghanizada: And a lot of the audience that's of the regions, it's their first Broadway play. And they are sobbing, first of all, because they're so proud that I'm in this story, that this story is being told, that they're seeing their culture in a way that's beautiful. And now they're like, I want to see all the Broadway plays, right? So like Broadway hasn't opened itself up to audiences like this before. Like there's all these Afghans and Iranians and Pakistanis and people from the Middle East and North Africa all throughout coming and just like sobbing. And it's so special to me that we're bringing in this new audience. And so yes, my family is proud. It took them some time. I think they had to start seeing me successful.

And also there's ups and downs from an artist, right? I would have a tremendous amount of success. And then I'd have nine months where I didn't work at all. And that's very scary to parents. And they would, what's the backup plan? And they just didn't understand. So when I was in my 20s, that was hard to hear. I'm just like, leave me alone. Let me figure this out. And I had every job in the world, and they didn't love that. There's a line where Baba says, you're going to go get a chatty job like mine. And they were like, you're educated, you're smart, and you're walking dogs. You know what I mean? Like you're house sitting. They couldn't fathom that I was choosing the path of artistry instead of doing what other things I could do.

But I remember my mom saw me in an episode of Castle, and I was playing a dominatrix. And I have a whole leather outfit and a whip, and I'm with my friend John Huertas. And luckily we're good friends, so we got to play. And I'm like whipping John and like doing the whole thing. And I'm all done to the nines. And my mom called and was like, oh my God, I told everyone in Virginia to watch you on Castle. Your makeup was so pretty. And I was like, oh great. Like forget cultural bias. She didn't care that I was a dominatrix at all. I looked good, and I was on a hit show on ABC at 10 p.m. And she loved it. She just loved it so much. So I would definitely say it's changed. They're not the parents they were in the 80s. You know, they've definitely come a long way.

And you know, I think Facebook has helped with that, because they have so like the internet, like they have so much access to things and movies and stories. And they were just scared. They were scared.

[28:23] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah. We're going to take a short break. Stay tuned for more of the episode. Well, why then did you decide to go into performing and acting and pursue this path that didn't have anybody like you in it, for the most part?

[28:35] Azita Ghanizada: Yeah, I mean, I think I've said this before, like, how do you become what you don't see? Right? Like, there's no, like, how do you, who do you model yourself after? And I would give anything to have had that experience. I mean, it's like, what do you model yourself after? And I would give anything to have had mentors. Like, I think about that all the time. I just didn't connect to anybody because like, they didn't have the same story. You know, I learned English watching television. And it was probably the happiest time in my home was when we were all watching some sort of a show. I love the escapism. I loved watching Entertainment Tonight with my mom. Dynasty with my mom, Peter Jennings. Like, I say Mary Hart, Peter Jennings and Joan Collins taught me English.

And that's pretty much everything you need to know about me. As a person, that's it. Like, newsy, glamorous, and like, loves television and entertainment. But, you know, I so desperately just thought, I want to be there. And I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know if that meant I was going to, you know, work in the news, if I was going to, like, become a journalist, if I was going to become an actress. I thought I could become an actress, although I didn't have any craft. I just thought there was something in me that thought, I can do this, because I have so many stories to tell, right? I said this somewhere else recently, that like, I had a lot of life. Like, you can't teach what I experienced, right?

You can't give somebody that DNA of like, being a survivor of war, coming from war survivors, like, being shown photos of children with missing limbs from landmines and being told, that's what you escaped, be grateful. You know, that kind of awareness at eight years old, that like, you've escaped war, going to airports and picking up people coming out of refugee camps that have been threatened and violated and abused, and prisoners of war, and you're eight, nine, ten, like, I had all of that. I had a family that was falling apart under, you know, the cultural transition that was desperately holding on to their family with girls that wanted their own ideas to express that their own autonomy and selves.

I had all of these things kind of experiencing that I was fighting through, and so I had all the life, but I didn't have the craft, right? So, I think I showed up in Hollywood on a one-way ticket. I gave myself 30 days to make it. Yeah, I know, and I'd only been on a plane twice before, and I didn't make it in 30 days, but I did find a job at E. I'm a proud E Networks alum. I worked there for a couple years, and I learned everything about the business. I learned everything about the business. We actually called it E University at the time because everybody was there learning about different aspects. There were actors there. There were people that wanted to be on-air hosts. There were producers.

There was just everybody, and I'm close to so many of them still, and I got to take acting classes for the first time in my, like, early 20s, and I just remember feeling so alive when I would do it. There wasn't any other feeling I'd ever had, and it's still my happiest place. Like, this is exhausting. This is a lot. Eight shows a week. I mean, tech, I blew my calf. I mean, I had to miss something with you because I popped my calf from being in tech and doing previews and not having even a minute. Like, the exhaustion, the body shut down. My body shut down. Like, I've never fought dehydration like I'm fighting right now, but I will be a wreck if I miss a show. I don't want to miss one show. I don't want to miss that one opportunity to express myself and to connect to my beautiful cast and to our audience. I want to be with them every single time, eight times a week until October 30th, and then I'm going to be on an island, so goodbye.

[32:50] Alan Seales: Fair and well-deserved, I suspect. Yes. All right. So, I think that's a wonderful place to transition to our three closing questions that we use to wrap up the episodes. The first one just simply is what motivates you.

[33:01] Azita Ghanizada: Purpose.

[33:08] Alan Seales: Should I elaborate? Is it not?

[33:12] Azita Ghanizada: No. No. I was like, I'm like, do I do an Avenue Q joke or do I let this be? Okay, I'll let it sit. Okay.

[33:16] Alan Seales: Cool. Cool. Cool. All right. Next question is, what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[33:24] Azita Ghanizada: Oh, wow. If you know everything about yourself, then nothing anyone can say about you will hurt you. If you know everything about yourself, then nothing anyone can say will hurt you, and that means living in honesty and integrity and alignment and knowing I was just a shitty person right there, or I did that terrible thing, or sometimes I do this thing, and that's not the best part of me, and when someone comes to you and says, you did this, you go, oh, wow, that's that part of me that like, okay, it's not the best, and I want to take accountability or whatever, or even if it's in a performance, you're like, I was schmackting. I don't think that was my best show yet, and somebody says a bad review about you, you can go, I was schmackting.

I wish they would come back. You know what I mean? I had a headache or I was pushing it. You're just so aligned with yourself that it's like, what does that person doesn't know? They didn't get to see you for 365 days. They caught you in that one moment. So, I think that's the one thing I would tell to younger people. It's just do that, and also do the work. Do the work. You can get away with cheating a little bit, but under the lights, it will be exposed.

[34:58] Alan Seales: I want to go back, too, to something you'd said at the very beginning, which was like, it's not for everybody. You can't please everybody. So, even if the reviewers are all white men, they're not going to get the story in the same way that your 20-something Middle Eastern women are going to get. It's going to be night and day.

[35:17] Azita Ghanizada: Absolutely not, and that's about who are the gatekeepers to telling stories, right? Who are the gatekeepers that tell us what stories we should watch and shouldn't watch, and how do they connect and not connect? That's just dismantling a centuries-long failed way that people view things. It doesn't affect me because I don't connect to that person's life. There are things that they love that I don't love at all. That doesn't mean that we're separate. It just means that we're different. We're still connected.

[35:55] Alan Seales: All right. Last question, then. If you could only see one show for the rest of your life, but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[36:04] Azita Ghanizada: Broadway show?

[36:06] Alan Seales: Any show, any show. We'll go with Broadway, and then you can do TV or film, too, if you want.

[36:11] Azita Ghanizada: Well, my favorite show this year was the Lehman Trilogy.

[36:14] Alan Seales: Ooh, yes.

[36:15] Azita Ghanizada: I loved it, and I'm sure seeing it over... What a tour de force of acting. I mean, actually, after seeing it, I went to Matthew Spangler, and I was like, why can't I narrate at certain points? Like the Lehman Trilogy, swap it on over to me. I just felt so inspired by that storytelling and the way Sam Mendes handled that and those actors. I would say the Lehman Trilogy, for sure. I would say a story that I loved on Broadway that was a story that I really connected to as a personal story was The Color Purple. I was so moved by The Color Purple. I felt seen. I felt connected to. I was so glad that it was being told in that way.

[37:06] Alan Seales: I love that. All right. Where can we find you and connect with you on social medias?

[37:12] Azita Ghanizada: On Instagram, I'm Azita Graham. On Twitter, I'm Azita Ghanizada. That's about it. I don't really use Facebook. I'm on there, but I don't really.

[37:22] Alan Seales: So you just said your name Azita, but your mom says your name Azita?

[37:25] Azita Ghanizada: Azita.

[37:26] Alan Seales: Azita.

[37:27] Azita Ghanizada: Azita, yeah. It's Azita. The American way has kind of been the way. When I was a little girl, they'd always stop at my name, right? So from the age of five in kindergarten, that's probably why I'm a public speaker. It was because I had to stand up in school in front of all the 28 students and I'd have to go, Azita Ghanizada. It's not that hard.

[37:53] Alan Seales: No, no. Just not Americanized. You're not used to Bob and Richard.

[37:59] Azita Ghanizada: Hey, everyone learned how to say Daenerys Targaryen or Arnold Schwarzenegger. They can say Azita Ghanizada.

[38:06] Alan Seales: Get to the chopper.

[38:08] Azita Ghanizada: Okay. You can get more of me at the theaterpodcast.com. I'm on Instagram and Twitter at theater underscore podcast. I'm on TikTok at the theater podcast. Leave a rating and a review wherever you're listening. This has been edited by well-rounded hoodlum productions. Jukebox the ghost gave us our intro and outro music and Azita, thank you so much.

[38:29] Azita Ghanizada: I hope I end up on TikTok.

[38:32] Alan Seales: We'll put it on the Tikitoks. We'll get there.

[38:35] Azita Ghanizada: Thank you so much, Alan. And again, I'll talk to you soon.