Hamideh Kheirabadi

Who was Hamideh Kheirabadi?

Hamideh Kheirābādi was a celebrated Iranian film and theatre actress. She played in more than 200 feature films and in over 20 television series. Inside Iran, she is affectionately referred to as Nādereh and Mother of the Iranian Cinema.

Hamideh Kheirābādi was born in Rasht, the capital of the Gilan Province, Iran. Whereas she married at the very young age of 13, she continued with her studies and completed her secondary-school education. In the middle of 1950s she divorced from her husband and lived thereafter with her daughter, Sorayyā Ghāsemi. Kheirābādi's acting career began in 1947 with theatre.

Hamideh Kheirābādi worked with a large number of celebrated Iranian film directors, such as Ali Hatami, Dariush Mehrjoui, Masud Kimiai, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Sirus Alvand, Sirus Moghaddam and Tahmineh Milani. She was thrice nominated for the Crystal Simorgh Prize. During the second Iranian Celebration of Screen Actors, held on 5 January 2008 at Tehran's Arikeh-ye Iranian Hall, Kheirābādi was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

It has been reported that plans had been made that after six years of absence from acting,Kheirābādi would appear before camera on 23 April 2010, playing the role of herself in a series named The Land of the People, directed by Abolhasan Dāvoudi.