Sarah Shahi was born on January 10, 1980, in Euless, Texas, and raised there. She is the daughter of Mah Monir Soroush Azar, an interior designer, and Abbas Jahansouz Shahi, who divorced when she was ten. Her father is from Iran. Her mother was born in Spain, to an Iranian father and a Spanish mother. She has an older brother, Cyrus, and a younger sister, Samantha, who is a production assistant. Her father\'s family left Iran two years before the Iranian Revolution. Her father was working at the American Embassy in Iran, was slated for execution when the last Shah\'s regime collapsed in 1979, but was able to flee the country. Her birth name, Aahoo (Persian: آهو‎), means "gazelle" in Persian. \n', '

Shahi adopted Sarah as her name in second grade after hearing a song called "Sarah" because she was "tormented" by other children about her unusual birth name. At her father\'s behest, she grew up speaking Persian, in addition to English. Shahi\'s parents began entering her in beauty pageants at the age of eight. Shahi attended Trinity High School, where she was captain of the volleyball and basketball teams, and Southern Methodist University, majoring in English and Theater. She was a member of Alpha Chi Omega during her time at SMU. Shahi won the Miss Fort Worth pageant in 1997. Hoping to become an actress, she joined the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (1999–2000) squad despite not having cheered before, and appeared on the cover of the squad\'s 2000 calendar. Later, she moved to Los Angeles.\n', '

While working as an extra on the set of Dr. T and the Women in Texas, Shahi met director Robert Altman, who encouraged her to move to Hollywood, where she received roles in several series, including Alias, Dawson\'s Creek, Reba, and Supernatural. In 2005 she appeared in the supporting character role of DJ Carmen de la Pica Morales on The L Word, which she joined in its second season. Shahi\'s two-year contract was not renewed after the end of the fourth season, and her character was written out.\n', '

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