Maryam Keshavarz Biography: Net Worth, Age, Movies, Awards, Parents, Ethnicity, Husband
Maryam Keshavarz is an Iranian-American film director, screenwriter and producer born on June 9, 1975, in New York City, United States.
She spent much of her childhood between New York and Shiraz, Iran, growing up between two cultures that later became central to her filmmaking.
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She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature from Northwestern University, a Master’s degree in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan, and an MFA in Film Direction from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Her breakthrough came through the documentary The Color of Love, the short film The Day I Died, and particularly the feature Circumstance, which won the Audience Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Her later films include Viper Club and The Persian Version, a semi-autobiographical family drama that won both the Sundance Audience Award and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in 2023.
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| Wiki Facts & About Data | |
| Name: | Maryam Keshavarz |
| Born: | June 9, 1975 (age 51 years old) |
| Place of Birth: | New York City, New York, United States |
| Nationality: | American |
| Ethnicity: | Iranian |
| Religion: | Islam |
| Parents: | Mr. and Mrs. Keshavarz |
| Siblings: | 7 |
| Children: | 1 |
| Occupation: | Film Director, Screenwriter, Producer |
| Net Worth: | $3 million |
Early Life and Education
Maryam Keshavarz was born in New York City in 1975 to Iranian immigrant parents. She was raised by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Keshavarz, after they moved from Iran to the United States in 1967.
Her father was a doctor who came to America as part of a period when American hospitals were recruiting physicians from overseas.
Her mother had married her father at 13 in Iran and later became an important figure in the family’s economic survival after moving to America.
Keshavarz grew up in a very large Iranian-American family. She has seven brothers, and the dynamics of growing up as the only daughter among many siblings became a significant influence on her later work.
She has described her mother as relying heavily on her because she was the daughter and therefore someone her mother believed she could depend upon.
During childhood, Keshavarz regularly moved between New York and Iran, spending many summers and some school years in Shiraz.
This bicultural upbringing gave her direct experience of both American and Iranian society.
Her official biography describes this childhood as a major reason she eventually became interested in translating different cultural experiences through film.
When she was approximately seven years old, she spent a school year in Iran during the Iran-Iraq War.
She later recalled that children were questioned about their families, religious practices and exposure to foreign culture.
The experience made her conscious of the differences between the American educational environment she knew and the Iranian environment she encountered during the war.
Her childhood also involved a strong connection to basketball.
She made her school’s varsity basketball team as a freshman, although her father initially objected because the uniform required her to wear shorts.
She has described her adolescence as involving frequent disagreements with her father over her independence and social life.
Keshavarz initially pursued an academic career rather than immediately becoming a filmmaker. She attended Northwestern University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature.
She subsequently studied Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, earning a master’s degree.
She also spent time as a visiting scholar at the University of Shiraz in the Department of Language and Literature.
She initially intended to continue toward a PhD in Near Eastern Studies, concentrating on Iran and gender studies. Her plans changed after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
The experience made her increasingly interested in media representation and the way Middle Eastern people were portrayed in American culture.
She decided that filmmaking could give her a more direct way to tell stories about Iranian and Iranian-American experiences.
She subsequently attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she earned an MFA in Film Direction.
During her time at NYU, she began developing the filmmaking style that would eventually define her career, combining personal experiences, cultural identity, family relationships and questions surrounding gender.
Career
Maryam Keshavarz began making films in the early 2000s. One of her earliest projects was the experimental short Sanctuary, which she directed in 2001.
The film was inspired partly by the atmosphere surrounding 9/11 and explored the experiences of an Iranian woman living in post-9/11 America.
Her feature documentary The Color of Love followed in 2003. The documentary examined changing ideas about love, relationships and politics in Iran and was influenced by her personal connection to the country.
It received the David L. Wolper Award from the International Documentary Association and the Spectrum Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
Circumstance premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award.
It subsequently received numerous international awards, including recognition at the Noor Iranian Film Festival, Outfest, Paris Lesbian and Feminist Film Festival and Rome International Film Festival.
It was also nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards.
The film’s reception also affected Keshavarz‘s ability to work in Iran. Because of the film’s subject matter and her depiction of Iranian society, she faced restrictions related to the country’s film authorities and was unable to freely work there.
She subsequently continued developing projects internationally. The Persian Version won both the Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Keshavarz wrote, directed and produced the film.
Her filmmaking is strongly connected to themes of immigration, family, gender, sexuality, cultural identity, motherhood and the experiences of Iranian-Americans.
She frequently uses elements from her own life while reshaping them into fictional stories.
Awards and Nominations
- Berlin International Film Festival — Gold Teddy: Won for The Day I Died
- Berlin International Film Festival — Jury Prize: Received for The Day I Died
- International Documentary Association — David L. Wolper Award: Won for The Color of Love
- Full Frame Documentary Film Festival — Spectrum Award: Won for The Color of Love
- Sundance Film Festival — Audience Award: Won for Circumstance in 2011
- Rome International Film Festival — Best First Film: Won for Circumstance
- Independent Spirit Awards — John Cassavetes Award: Circumstance received a nomination
- Sundance Film Festival — Audience Award: Won for The Persian Version in 2023
- Sundance Film Festival — Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Won for The Persian Version in 2023
Social Media
- Instagram: @marakeshfilm
- X/Twitter: @marakeshfilms
- Website: Marakesh Films
Personal Life
Maryam Keshavarz is 51 years old. She has spoken publicly about her relationships and identifies as bisexual. In a detailed interview, she explained that she was previously married to a woman and later had a long-term female partner of 12 years.
Those relationships are part of her documented personal history.
Keshavarz is also a mother. In discussing The Persian Version, she referred to her daughter and explained that the real-life circumstances surrounding her daughter were different from the fictional story in the film.
She has stated that her father died years before she had her daughter and that, in reality, her father never met his granddaughter.
Her father was a doctor who served low-income patients in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
He believed strongly in providing medical care to people who could not easily afford it. He later suffered a heart attack and died when Keshavarz was in her twenties.
Her mother had been married at 13 in Iran and left school after the marriage.
After arriving in the United States, she became the primary economic support for the family when her husband’s illness created serious financial difficulties.
She eventually became a successful real-estate businesswoman, an experience that Keshavarz incorporated into The Persian Version.
Keshavarz‘s relationship with her mother was complicated during her childhood, but filmmaking gave her a different perspective on her mother’s life.
While making The Persian Version, she said that reconstructing her mother’s youth helped her understand the experiences she had gone through before immigrating to America.
Her life has remained closely divided between American and Iranian cultural influences.
She has described having two passports and feeling strongly connected to both cultures. Her films repeatedly explore what it means to exist between those worlds.
Net Worth
Maryam Keshavarz has a net worth of $3 million.
Her income sources include film directing, screenwriting, producing, filmmaking development, festival work, speaking engagements and international film projects.
Her principal professional work has come from independent cinema and feature filmmaking.
Her films Circumstance, Viper Club and The Persian Version, together with her earlier documentaries and short films, form the core of her filmmaking career.
Filmography
- Sanctuary
- The Color of Love
- Not for Sale
- The Day I Died
- Circumstance
- Viper Club
- The Persian Version
What People Ask
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