The Pitt star Sepideh Moafi has revealed that she refused to change her name to make herself “universally palatable” at the beginning of her career.
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The actress, who stars as Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi in season two of the hit HBO medical drama, opened up about getting an agent after graduating, recalling that she was pushed to use a different stage name.
“When I graduated from grad school, my first agent wanted me to change my name, and I immediately said, ‘Fuck no,'” she told People.
“I know actors who have changed their names and there’s no judgment there. And I know a lot of actors, specifically people of colour, who have been expected to change their name and haven’t.”
The actress, whose parents fled Iran after the revolution before moving to the US, admitted that an actor’s decision to change their name is “complicated” and that she doesn’t “think there’s anything wrong with people who decide to do it”.
“It felt like they needed me to be someone different in order to work or to sell something,” Moafi explained. “I refused. I continued, and I ended up booking my first job and then my second and third, and having a beautiful varied career as a result.”
She added: “I hope anyone who makes that choice makes it for themselves and not because they feel like they need to change who they are in order to be more universally palatable.”
Each season of The Pitt follows a 15-hour workshift by emergency medical staff at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, with the show debuting in the UK last week with the launch of HBO Max, over a year after the series’ US premiere.
The Pitt stars and is executive produced by Noah Wyle, who recently called for the US to get an NHS (National Healthcare Service) style healthcare system.
“Our system at the moment is laden with the insurance companies being the intermediary … and care being predicated by the algorithm that the insurance company dictates” he said (via The Hollywood Reporter).
“So it’s really become a profit-driven, quality-of-care-diminishing system. And I think it’s really enviable that that’s not part of your conversation. I personally think we need some sort of national healthcare service in the United States. We need universal coverage for everybody.”