Cyrus Nowrasteh
Film Director | Screen Writer — field_542d8190101fc
Cyrus Nowrasteh has worked in the motion picture and television business for over 25 years as a writer, producer, and director. He has won two PEN Awards, the Orson Welles Award, a Freedom of Expression award, awards at the Toronto, Los Angeles, and Berlin Film Festivals, an NAACP Award, and a MovieGuide Award.
He began his work in series television, most notably on the hit USA Network show La Femme Nikita which he developed, writing the pilot episode. In 2001, he wrote and directed the highly acclaimed cable feature The Day Reagan Was Shot, which starred Richard Dreyfuss as Alexander Haig and was executive-produced by Oliver Stone; the program remains the highest-rated two-hour telefilm to be broadcast on Showtime. Mr. Nowrasteh received the PEN Award for Best Teleplay; the film also received the American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Award. Mr. Nowrasteh again won a PEN Award as screenwriter of the Showtime film 10,000 Black Men Named George, which recounted the history of the Pullman porters.
In 2006, he wrote and produced the controversial ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11, which attracted nearly 28 million viewers. The editing team won an Emmy Award, and the project was nominated for six additional Emmys.
Mr. Nowrasteh co-wrote – with his wife Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh – and directed the feature The Stoning of Soraya M., which was released theatrically in 2009 to strong reviews. Telling the powerful true story of a woman stoned to death in Iran, and of how the story came to world attention, the movie won prizes at film festivals around the world, including the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival; and was selected for a number of Top 10 lists, including from the MovieGuide Awards. The film was also honored with the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Foreign Motion Picture and the Cinema for Peace Award for Justice at the Berlin Film Festival.
Among his projects in development are The Last Campaign and The Battle of New Orleans.