For the community

You’ll know Medalion Rahimi as Special Agent Fatima Namazi on NCIS: Los Angeles, one of the stand-out characters on the hit show. It’s brought her international fame, more so when she was promoted to a series regular with season 11.

Rahimi accepted the role with diversity in mind: Namazi is a Muslim hijabi woman, as well as a very able NCIS agent. You’ll also have seen her in the mini-series Pam & Tommy, in the role of Danielle—breaking ground again with her character a queer woman of colour—although she has been gracing screens since 2011.

With one-off roles for a good part of the 2010s, the 30-year-old actress played Princess Isabella for seven episodes in the 2017 series Still Star-Crossed, a story that picks up after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet and continues the dramas of the Montagues and Capulets, and found herself in a comedic role in My Dead Ex the following year.

It was Still Star-Crossed where Rahimi suspected she had reached a level of prominence, as the series was executive-produced by Shonda Rhimes. ‘If you’re in anything Shondaland,’ she tells Lucire, ‘you know you’re doing it!’

By then Rahimi’s journey in the acting profession had been going for 15 years. Born to a Muslim dentist father and Jewish lawyer mother, both hailing from Iran, Rahimi grew up in a household where she understood that ‘Faith is universal. And it shouldn’t separate us, it should bring us closer together. We want peace in the Middle East!’

She suspects her parents might have wanted her to follow in their footsteps. ‘But I think they figured out from a young age I wasn’t going into the medical or field of law …’

That age was probably 10. She still recalls, ‘I remember seeing my friend’s sister perform in Little Shop of Horrors. She was mesmerizing, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. We got to go backstage after, and the energy and excitement back there was infectious. I thought, I want to be part of this. I want in.’

It helped being a native Angeleno. ‘I didn’t have to move to follow my dreams. That’s a big step most actors have to make. And everyone knows knowing people in this industry always helps, so you meet people through friends but that never guarantees you’ll get jobs. But creating with my friends is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done. And I’m lucky to have a community of creatives around me.’

That community includes many other Iranian-Americans. She had recently worked with writer–director Yasmine Diba on a short, which she co-wrote, executive-produced, and starred in, called Wild Braid. The short made the rounds at numerous festivals in Los Angeles, Montréal and Berlin.

‘I’m discovering more and more each year, but yes absolutely there’s a lot of us here. A friend and Emmy-nominated writer Michael Shayan just opened his play Avaaz at the South Coast Rep. Tara Grammy, Nazanin Nour, Maryam Keshavarz, Arash Amel, Hushidar Mortezaie. I’m very grateful for this collective.’

It also helps that she grew up speaking Farsi and says when she listens to music in her ancestral tongue, she will sometimes cry. ‘Some ancestral chord is struck.

‘But I became more interested in my 20s. I think growing up with it, it was just something my parents listened to, and I wanted to listen to Missy Elliot or Tori Amos. But now my parents and I share Iranian music with each other, sometimes I’ll show them something they haven’t heard in a long time, and it brings back all these memories for them.’

Music aside, Rahimi has a love of all arts, especially poetry. When asked to name her favourite artists, it was two poets who came to mind. First, it was the revered Iranian Forugh Farrokhzad, whose strong feminine voice created controversy and whose work was banned for many years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. She was also a filmmaker. Secondly, Rahimi named the 10th-century Japanese Heian poet Izumi Shikibu. She takes in screenwriting books and was, at the time of the interview, reading a book by the US writer Dave Eggers.

It’s her closeness to her culture, and the Iranian-American community, that motivates Rahimi to make sure it is faithfully and fairly portrayed. ‘It’s been such a great siphon into to the community and I’m grateful for that. I’ve always done it for the community.’

However, she didn’t always have that luxury. ‘Sometimes you don’t have the resources to be picky with the roles you get, so you have to take ones that keep you going. But now, there are some roles I’ve done in the past I would never do again. So yes, there is more of a responsibility there. For the industry climate as well, to start portraying SWANA [South West Asian and North African] people accurately.’

There had been, Rahimi notes, an absence of roles for actors of Middle Eastern descent, and Anglo-American writers lacked the context to write those roles faithfully, being informed by mainstream media. It’s something that can only change through awareness and people taking responsibility.

But with Fatima Namazi, Rahimi is happy with the character, and felt ‘validated’ (‘There’s nothing like the feeling of booking a job,’ she adds) when she was promoted to a regular. However, she admits that given the format of NCIS: LA, there isn’t much change. ‘You know, part of the beauty of this show is that even though people watch it for the characters, the characters don’t always change a lot. They deal with new situations, and they grow from them. But they’re always reliable. Fatima really found her stride with the team. And I think it’s apparent.’

Fatima has given back, too: ‘I’ve been humbled, I found a new respect for women in the field, especially women of faith. I mean there’s so much. It was a life changing kind of role.’

She also gets to work with LL Cool J and Gerald McRaney, whom she calls ‘true gems. It’s surreal. I learn so much from them. They have the best stories. I love listening to their stories and they’ve got them for days.’

Rahimi’s personal style is quite different to Fatima’s. ‘I would say classic with a contemporary twist. I always like to imagine what the great actresses of the ’50s and ’60s and ’90s were wearing and then make it my own. When I’m not working, it’s pretty casual, most days. Active wear or pyjamas [laughs].’

Her fame has allowed her to shine a light on the human rights’ situation in Iran. When asked what those of us in the international community can do, she replies, ‘Continuing the conversation, amplifying Iranian voices, sharing their stories. Calling your rep. The more active we are, the less our government can get away with.’

She’s also involved in the fight for women’s rights in the US, and suggests similar action to get the country on a more progressive direction: ‘Talking about it, share the stories of what happens to women to mothers and daughters if they don’t get the proper health care. Remaining active, calling, petitioning. Standing in solidarity with other oppressive human rights movements, with our trans and queer folk. Strength in numbers.’

Beyond NCIS: LA, Rahimi is keeping busy. After getting an appetite for writing and producing, Rahimi advises us to watch this space. One of her shorts is streaming soon, and another is on the festival circuit. The new short stars Samantha Robinson (The Love Witch; Once upon a Time in Hollywood), with Taylor O’Neil directing.

Promisingly, she adds, ‘I have some other projects that I’m brewing up, very early stages. I could tell you, but then need I’d have to make you sign an NDA.’

Sounds good to us! Where do we sign? •

Gown: Lela Rose
Earrings: Christian Dior
Shoes: Giuseppe Zanotti
Make-up: Danessa Myricks Beauty and About Face


Dress: Staud
Scarf: Gucci
Make-up: Sisley and Gen See Beauty

Jack Yan is founder and publisher of Lucire.

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