Bijan Daneshmand (Persian: بیژن دانشمند, born 16 August 1958) is an Iranian actor and artist based in London, England. He is known for producing and starring in 20 Fingers (2004), which won the Best Digital Film award at the 61st Venice International Film Festival; for his roles in Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men (2009) and Babak Anvari's Under the Shadow (2016); as the character Kouyami in The Night Manager (2016), directed by Susanne Bier; and for portraying Ali Reza Jamshidpour in Maryam Keshavarz's The Persian Version (2023) and Rasoul Shahin in the Netflix series The Diplomat.
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Early life and education
Bijan Daneshmand was born on 16 August 1958 in Tehran, Iran. At the age of 10, he moved to England to receive his early education.
After graduating from King's College London, he attended the London Centre for Theatre Studies and the Philippe Gaulier School in Paris to develop his acting skills. Later, he obtained an MA from Chelsea College of Arts.
Career
Early career
In 1996, Daneshmand founded The Leonard, a boutique hotel near Marble Arch in central London, which became a favoured base for musicians and film professionals. William Orbit made recordings there for projects associated with Madonna, U2 and Pink. In 2003, Daneshmand sold his family interest in the business, to focus entirely on his art and acting.
Film and television
In 2004, Daneshmand produced and acted in 20 Fingers, a feature film, directed by and co-starring Mania Akbari. Filmed by Touraj Aslani with a digital video camera, the film consists of seven long takes in which Daneshmand and Akbari portray a couple, who discuss and argue about their relationship. It addresses subjects such as abortion, infidelity, and divorce. The film premiered at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Best Digital Film, Venezia Digitale.
In 2006, Daneshmand wrote and directed the avant-garde film, A Snake's Tail. It was named Best International Feature at the Bare Bones International Film Festival in Oklahoma and was screened at the Festival Do Rio and the Frankfurt International Film Festival.
In 2009, Daneshmand appeared in Women Without Men, which was directed by Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari. It is based on the 1990 novel by Shahrnush Parsipur. The film addresses gender and political issues in Iran and received the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 2009 Venice Film Festival.
In 2011, Daneshmand portrayed a teacher in Two & Two, which was directed by Babak Anvari, co-produced by Kit Fraser, and written by Babak Anvari and Gavin Cullen. The eight-minute film follows a teacher who instructs his pupils that two plus two equals five. It was nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Short Film in 2012.
In 2016, Daneshmand played the role of university director in Under the Shadow, a Persian-language psychological horror film directed by Babak Anvari. Set in Tehran during the Iran–Iraq War, the film follows a mother and daughter experiencing supernatural events. It premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer in 2017.
In 2021, Daneshmand wrote and directed the Persian-language web series, The Bahramis.
In 2022, Daneshmand was cast as a AliReza Jamshidpour, one of the principal characters in Maryam Keshavarz's film The Persian Version. The film premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in January 2023, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and the Audience Award.
Radio
Daneshmand has appeared regularly in BBC Radio productions, including Baghdad Burning (2010), the Radio 4 drama The Boy from Aleppo Who Painted the War (2014), The Price of Oil: The Weapon (2015), B7 Media's Dan Dare audio drama (2017), the BBC World Service documentary drama Fall of the Shah (2019), and Central Intelligence (2024).
Art
Alongside his acting career, Daneshmand works as a painter of geometric abstraction, with a focus on repetition, non-periodic tiling and patterns derived from Persian architecture. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in London, Tehran, Los Angeles, and Beijing, including Kids of Dada (2014), Unreadable at the Pangea Sculptors' Centre (2015), Blue Gold at Etemad Gallery in Tehran (2016) and the solo exhibition Infinite Truths at Janet Rady Fine Art in London (2017). In 2020, he began Damavand, a series of more than 150 paintings inspired by Mount Damavand and its associations with childhood memory and Iranian identity.
Voice acting
In 2024, Daneshmand performed as the voice character of King Darius, in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown video game by Ubisoft.
Theatre
In 2026, Daneshmand made his major London stage debut at the Almeida Theatre in the world premiere of Carmen Nasr's adaptation of Under the Shadow, directed by Nadia Latif. He played Mr Bijari and the university director, reimagining the film role he had originated a decade earlier.
Selected filmography
Awards and recognition
2004: Best Film Venezia Cinema Digitale at the Venice Film Festival, for 20 Fingers, produced by Daneshmand
2006: Winner, Best International Feature at the Bare Bones International Film Festival, for A Snake's Tail, written and directed by Daneshmand
2021: Award of Merit in the Web Series category and Award of Excellence in the Actor: Leading category at the IndieFEST Film Awards, for The Bahramis.
2021: Best Actor at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival for The Bahramis.
