The Most Famous
ACTORS from Afghanistan
This page contains a list of the greatest Afghan Actors. The pantheon dataset contains 13,578 Actors, 3 of which were born in Afghanistan. This makes Afghanistan the birth place of the 95th most number of Actors behind Bahrain, and Tanzania.
Top 4
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Afghan Actors of all time. This list of famous Afghan Actors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity.
1. Kader Khan (1937 - 2018)
With an HPI of 55.66, Kader Khan is the most famous Afghan Actor. His biography has been translated into 39 different languages on wikipedia.
Kader Khan (22 October 1937 – 31 December 2018) was an Indian actor, screenwriter and film producer. As an actor, he appeared in over 300 Bollywood films after his acting debut in the film Daag in 1973, starring Rajesh Khanna, as a prosecuting attorney. He was a prolific actor and screenwriter in Hindi cinema, from the late 1970s to the late 1990s and wrote dialogues for 200 films. Born in Afghanistan, Khan graduated from Ismail Yusuf College affiliated to Bombay University. Before entering the film industry in 1971, he was a professor of civil engineering in M. H. Saboo Siddik College of Engineering, Mumbai.
2. Leena Alam (b. 1978)
With an HPI of 46.41, Leena Alam is the 2nd most famous Afghan Actor. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Leenā Alam (Pashto: لينا علم;) is an Afghan film, television, and theater actress. She has appeared in films such as Kabuli Kid, Black Kite, Loori, A Letter to the President and Hassan. She is widely known to have worked on film and TV that speak of child marriage, gender inequality, women's rights and social conflicts. She has also been known as "Shereen of Afghanistan" (شیرین افغانستان) after playing in the taboo-smashing feminist television drama, Shereen (شیرین), the first of its kind to have been made in Afghanistan, directed by Ghafar Azad and produced by Kaboora and Tolo TV. Shereen was nominated for Best Mini-Series Drama alongside The Night Manager, Mr. Robot and Deutschland 83 and Leena Alam was nominated for Best Actress at the Seoul International Drama Awards 2016. In 1991, Alam and her family moved to the United States of America because of the civil war in her homeland. She began her acting and cinema career in 1998. In 2021 she was named as one of the BBC's 100 Women.
3. Marina Golbahari (b. 1989)
With an HPI of 34.01, Marina Golbahari is the 3rd most famous Afghan Actor. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Marina Golbahari (Dari: مارینا گلبهاری; born 1989) is an Afghan actress who earned international fame for her role as the title character in the 2003 film Osama, playing a girl who had to dress and act as a boy to support her family during the Taliban years.
4. Soosan Firooz (b. 0)
With an HPI of 32.98, Soosan Firooz is the 4th most famous Afghan Actor. Her biography has been translated into 14 different languages.
Soosan Firooz (Dari: سوسن فیروز; born 1989), sometimes spelled Susan Feroz, is an Afghan actress and rapper. She has been described as Afghanistan's first female rapper. She is a controversial figure, challenging societal norms and the traditional role of Afghan women. Firooz was born in Afghanistan. Her family fled the country and lived in an Iranian refugee camp for seven years during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s. In Iran, she encountered hostility from Iranians and was unable to attend school with any regularity due to bureaucratic entanglements. Her family then spent three years in Pakistan as refugees. Following the fall of the Taliban, Firooz's family returned to Afghanistan. They moved to Kandahar in 2003, where her father had secured employment. She worked alongside her siblings, weaving rugs. The family moved to Kabul in 2011 and she became an actress, taking small roles in local television soap operas and movies. Firooz asked for and received permission to rap from her father, Abdul Ghafar Firooz. She came to the attention of Afghan musician Farid Rastagar, who has promoted her and composed her first single. Firooz raps in Dari. Her first single, "Our Neighbors", was released in 2012. The song explores the plight of Afghan refugees in stark terms. It was composed by Rastagar with lyrics by poet Suhrab Sirat. Her song, "Naqisul Aql" means "mentally disturbed" and is an epithet used against women in Afghanistan. Firooz lives with her family in north Kabul. She has been threatened with acid attacks, kidnapping, and death. Her mother, who does humanitarian work in southern Afghanistan, has also received death threats. Her father gave up his job at the electrical department and acts as her manager and bodyguard, accompanying her to studios. Her uncle cut off relations with her family out of disapproval of Firooz appearing on television and singing. Firooz performed at a three-day music festival in Kabul in October 2012.
People
Pantheon has 4 people classified as Afghan actors born between 1937 and 1989. Of these 4, 3 (75.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Afghan actors include Leena Alam, Marina Golbahari, and Soosan Firooz. The most famous deceased Afghan actors include Kader Khan. As of April 2024, 1 new Afghan actors have been added to Pantheon including Soosan Firooz.
