Maryam Zaree

Biography

Maryam Zaree (Persian: مریم زارع; born July 22, 1983, in Tehran, Iran) is a German actress, filmmaker, and writer. She has appeared in various European film productions and gained recognition for lead roles in films such as Shahada, as well as for her award-winning performance in the series 4 Blocks, for which she received the Grimme Prize in 2018. She made her directorial debut with the documentary Born in Evin, which explores her birth inside Evin Prison and won the German Film Award for Best Documentary in 2020.

Maryam Zaree was born in Evin Prison in the Iranian capital, Tehran. In 1985, her mother, Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, fled with her to Germany to escape political persecution. From the age of two, Zaree grew up in Frankfurt am Main.

From 2004 to 2008, she studied acting at the Konrad Wolf University of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. While still a student, she participated in various film and television productions.

Zaree rose to prominence through her lead role in the feature film Shahada, which screened in the Official Competition at the Berlinale in 2010 and received multiple awards at international festivals. For her performance, she received—among other honors—the Best Leading Performance award at the Monterrey Film Festival in Mexico, as well as a Special Mention at the Ghent International Film Festival.

She went on to play other lead roles in films such as Abgebrannt, Marry Me, and the international co-production I Am Not Him by Tayfun Pirselimoğlu. On German television, she appeared from 2015 to 2019 as forensic pathologist Nasrin Reza in the Berlin-based Tatort series. In the series 4 Blocks, she played the role of Khalila. In addition to her work in front of the camera, Zaree has also appeared as a guest actress at various theaters, including the Schauspielhaus Hannover, the Maxim Gorki Theater, the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, and the Ballhaus Naunynstraße.

Zaree also works as a writer and director. With her first play, Kluge Gefühle, she won the Authors' Prize at the Heidelberg Play Market in 2017, as well as the Advancement Award of the Schiller Memorial Prize in 2019. Also in 2019, she was awarded a writer-in-residence position at London’s Royal Court Theatre.

With her directorial debut, Born in Evin, she returned to her own personal history, exploring the circumstances of her birth inside Evin Prison in Iran. The documentary premiered at the Berlinale in 2019, where it received the Compass-Perspektive-Prize, and went on to win the German Film Award for Best Documentary in 2020. That same year, Zaree served as a member of the jury for the Amnesty International Film Prize at the Berlinale.