Ariana Delawari - Actress Model and Photographer
“Sleeper Cell” …. Rana (1 episode, 2006)
Immigrant (2006) TV Episode (as Ariana Del Wari)“E-Ring” …. Farah (1 episode, 2005)
Delta Does Detroit (2005) TV Episode …. Farah“Entourage” …. X-Box Girl (1 episode, 2005)
Chinatown (2005) TV Episode …. X-Box Girl“Boston Public” …. Monique (2 episodes, 2003)
Chapter Seventy-Four (2003) TV Episode ….
Chapter Sixty-Nine (2003) TV Episode …. MoniqueP.O.V.: The Camera’s Eye (2003) …. Elizabeth“Undressed” (1999) TV Series …. Adele (2001: Season 4)
I was born in Los Angeles the same year the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. My mother says that I never slept in a crib. Twenty days before I was born my father’s family left their country and sought refuge in our home. I was constantly held and never alone. They named me “Ariana” after the ancient name of Afghanistan. It means “land of the Aryans”. My earliest memories of those days are as follows: Afghan parties at our house that lasted till 3 in the morning, dressing up like Madonna with my cousins while my older sister choreographed and directed “music videos”, dislike for my kindergarten teacher who said I “talked too much”, listening to bands like Madness and Depeche Mode, the color pink, an old Afghan nursery rhyme that my grandmother Ko Ko-jan used to sing to me that went “Oh la lo, la lo, la lo”, my father’s “V 4 AFGHAN” license plate, and side pony tails. My first language was Dari, and, yet the first song I learned to sing was “lucky star” by Madonna. I was playing with rainbow bright dolls and watching The Wizard of Oz while families were lost in the crossfire of constant battle. My life as an Afghan American was clearly worlds apart from that of a young girl growing up in Afghanistan. And though I always felt deeply connected to Afghanistan, I never dreamt of actually getting to see this magical land of my ancestry. My father would tell stories of his childhood and the only reference I ever had were the pictures I had seen in National Geographic. I was born when the war began there. The Afghanistan I grew up hearing about was too dangerous to see.
I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. Whether it was drawing, dancing, music, theatre, taking photos, making movies- I have always had to express myself creatively. So there were lessons, and teachers, and schools, and mentors. I was fortunate to grow up in a family that supported this craving of mine. September 11th 2001 brought forth many changes for my family. At the time, I was finishing my last year of film school at the University of Southern California. I remember waking up to a phone call from father telling me of the devastating news. That day I knew that our lives would be changed forever.
Over the course of the next several months, my parents decided to move to Afghanistan and help reconstruct the country. My father left in February 2002. My mother stayed behind to sell the house, the cars, and their business. I took my first trip to Afghanistan on my twenty second birthday, October 21, 2002. I felt that arriving on my birthday would complete a cycle of my life and begin a new chapter of revelations. In all of the years of living here, all of the schools and experiences, nothing could teach me or change me more than this first trip to Afghanistan. The evidence of destruction was everywhere. There were huge bullet holes in the window of our hotel room. But what shocked me the most was the beauty and resilience of the Afghan people. I could see the wear of loss in the lines around their eyes or the roughness of their hands, but never in their spirit. These people are full of joy and love. I expected devastation and was met with faith. This is perhaps the greatest lesson of my life. I feel so blessed to be able to see and document this time in the history of Afghanistan.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:18 pm
ariana jan salam wish you alll the best and love you
May 6th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
ur so nice lol keep it up
June 4th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
6/4/09
Dear Ariana Delawari,
I came across your name in my search for an actress to perform in a 30 minute version of my full-length play, TO THE DEATH OF MY OWN FAMILY, which will be part of the San Francisco Theatre Festival on Sunday, July 26th, and I almost got shivers up an down my back after I read your bio. I do not know where you live, though I imagine in L.A., and that may rule out the possibility of acting in my play for this one day without, I am sorry to say, compensation. However, this is an award-winning play that has been produced nationally and internationally, and I have this intuitive feeling that you may be a very special person for it. Please visit my web site to learn more about me and my work; and if you have any interest, please let me know, as I would like to learn more about you and your work. I can be contacted by phone at 203-227-8199 in Connecticut, or by email at dlm67@mac.com. Here is more about the play.
TO THE DEATH OF MY OWN FAMILY is an intensely dramatic nonlinear play about an Afghan-American woman who returns to Afghanistan to help her father escape, only to witness the carnage of her entire family. Upon her return to the U.S., she is detained, interrogated, and forced to justify her journey in order to reclaim her citizenship. We then learn about a deeper, darker secret that has haunted the family for many years, but which they do not want to confront until they are forced to confront each other in the face of death. It is a one-woman show with 18 characters, but it is not a monologue; rather, time is suspended and no one in the audience knows how long they have been in the theater. In actual time, it runs about 60+ minutes in 23 pages, but you would never know it.
TO THE DEATH OF MY OWN FAMILY has been traveling the country for about three years as it developed from a ten-minute play to its current full-length version. It had also been selected for the Kathmandu International Theater Festival in November ‘08 in Nepal from mid to late November, and then we were planning to be back in Mumbai to perform the play again. We were even offered complimentary rooms at the Oberoi hotel. That would have placed us at the scene at exactly the time of the attacks. I guess we were lucky not to get the funding we needed for international travel, as we had to cancel. It has also recently been invited to be part of the Festival Arts Azimuts for the 15th commemoration festival of the genocide in Rwanda, at the Centre Universitaire des Arts in Sept. 2009.
During the summer we toured 4 cities in India to standing-room-only and standing ovations: Chennai, Bangalore, Pondicherry and Mumbai, where we nearly had a riot when we had to turn away people. We avoided calling the police by doing a second, unplanned performance.
1. The Hindu Newspaper
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2007080950740300.htm&date=2007/08/09/&prd=mp&
Among my credits: Finalist in the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Stageworks/Hudson’s 2005 Play by Play Festival (NY), Claire Donaldson Short Play Festival (SD), Mercy Plays (The Haven, NYC); Honorable Mention: Fred Newman-Mario Frattti Anti-Corruption Play Writing Award/Castillo Theatre (NYC). Work has appeared in front of audiences at Abingdon Theater (NYC), Ensemble Studio Theatre (NYC) – Summer Conference, Theatre Artists Workshop (Westport, CT), Westport Community Theatre (Westport, CT), Ohio Theater (NYC-Theatres Against War), Book Traders Cafe, (New Haven, CT), Herring Run Arts Festival (Middleboro, MA), Theatre One Productions (Lakeville, MA), Puffin Foundation (NJ) and New Jersey Dramatists, 13th Street Rep. (NYC), Augustana College (Sioux Falls, SD), Darien Players (CT), Pan Asian Rep., (NYC), Lone Star Ensemble (LA), Cabaret for Peace & Justice, Hunter College (NYC), PS 122 (NYC-THAW), Heartlande Theatre Company (MI), SLAM!@The Tank (NYC), The Culture Project’s Impact Festival (NYC), Nuyorican Poets Café (NYC), North Park Playwrights Festival (San Diego, CA), Cornelia Street Cafe (NYC), Bowery Poetry Club (NYC), Mo Pitkin’s (NYC), Abrons Arts Center at the Henry Street Settlement; Boston Theatre Marathon X, Ball Perofrming Arts Center (Waco, TX); NU Ways/NU Works Festival (U. Nebraska TBD), Co-Op Theater East (NYC), San Francisco Theater Festival (July, 09), with more to come, dates not yet confirmed.
Memberships include: the Dramatists Guild, Theatre Artists Workshop (CT), Playwrights Center (MN), PEN, The Academy of American Poets, Theatre Without Borders, Peace and Justice Studies Association, and the Educational Theater Association.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration. I hope that we may be able to work together.
Sincerely yours,
David L. Meth
203-227-8199
dlm67@mac.com
http://web.mac.com/dlm6
June 20th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
awesome! good luck in your career
June 27th, 2009 at 6:56 am
I thought this was supposed to be a girl. You can yourself an actress?? After some nake up and surgery, maybe you can at least look human!
July 26th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Goodd luckk Hunn!
August 21st, 2009 at 9:29 am
HEY,
YOU R SO CUTE. GOOD LUCK!!!!!
August 21st, 2009 at 11:03 am
hello
September 1st, 2009 at 1:00 am
omg zara needs to be banned from making comments on this site! afghanbuzz: delete her disgusting words! my goodness! this should be a site to encourage young afghans to grow successful not to hurt them!!!!
January 12th, 2010 at 1:37 am
salam
ariana jan i am really so happy to hear a lot of afghan people to be the great personality and i hope and wish you the best and good
my best regards
khoda negahdar tan bad