Armenian heritage
by chrissch | created - 06 Mar 2014 | updated - 06 Mar 2014 | PublicActresses and actors with Armenian ancestry. (This list is still growing, begun on 2014 March 6.)
1. Cher
Actress | Moonstruck
The beat goes on ... and on ... and as strong as ever for this superstar entertainer who has well surpassed the half-century mark while improbably transforming herself from an artificial, glossy "flashionplate" singer into a serious, Oscar-worthy, dramatic actress ... and back again! With more ups ...
2. Andy Serkis
Actor | War for the Planet of the Apes
English film actor, director and author Andy Serkis is known for his performance capture roles comprising motion capture acting, animation and voice work for such computer-generated characters as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001-2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), ...
3. Michael Vartan
Actor | Alias
Michael Vartan came to international acclaim with his starring role as 'Agent Michael Vaughn' on the worldwide hit ABC series, "Alias," which ran for five seasons. With upcoming film and television roles, he continues to explore the different facets of his talent and versatility.
Vartan currently ...
4. Sid Haig
Actor | House of 1000 Corpses
Tall, bald and nearly always bearded, Sid Haig provided hulking menace to many a low-budget exploitation film and high-priced action film.
Sid Haig was born Sidney Eddie Mosesian on July 14, 1939 in Fresno, California, a screaming ball of hair. His parents, Roxy (Mooradian) and Haig Mosesian, an ...
5. Atom Egoyan
Director | The Sweet Hereafter
Born in Egypt to Armenian parents, he was raised in Western Canada. Both his parents were painters, and he planned to be a playwright, but after making a short film, he became hooked on telling stories visually. Returned to ethnic "homeland" when he filmed Calendar (1993) in Armenia. Won attention ...
6. Eric Bogosian
Actor | Talk Radio
Eric Bogosian was born in Boston and grew up in Woburn, Massachusetts. After graduating from Woburn Memorial High School in 1971, he attended the University of Chicago and graduated from Oberlin College in 1976, whereupon he moved to New York City. In New York he was hired by the Kitchen as an ...
7. Simon Abkarian
Actor | Casino Royale
Simon Abkarian was born Simone Abkarian on March 5, 1962, in Gonesse, a northeastern suburb of Paris, France, into a French - Armenian family. Young Simon Abkarian grew up in a trilingual environment, he learned French at school in addition to his native Armenian, and also learned English by ...
8. Akim Tamiroff
Actor | Touch of Evil
Though born in Georgia and having a Russian-sounding name, Akim Tamiroff is actually of Armenian descent. At 19 he decided to pursue acting as a career and was chosen from among 500 applicants to the Moscow Art Theater School. There he studied under the great Konstantin Stanislavski, and launched a...
9. Marco Khan
Actor | 10,000 BC
Marco Khan(lian) is a true citizen of the world. He was born March 27th of Armenian parents in Tehran, Iran. His father, Levon was born in Lebanon and raised in Iran where he met his wife Anna, born in Babol, Iran. Marco's grandparents (from his mother's side) were a grandfather from Russia and a ...
10. Mark Adair-Rios
Actor | Bosch
Mark Adair-Rios' work and projects-in-development blow the lid off what it means to be a working actor in Hollywood. Raised as a San Fernando Valley boy, his multi-ethnic heritage keeps Casting guessing and lands him roles that range from gang member to techno geek, psychotic killer to misogynist ...
11. Peter Macdissi
Actor | The Losers
Peter Macdissi is an actor and producer who can be seen in the comedy-drama film "Uncle Frank," written and directed by Alan Ball. Macdissi produced and co-stars alongside Paul Bettany and Sophia Lillis. He portrays 'Wally' who joins a road trip with his partner 'Frank' (Bettany) and his niece '...
12. Charles Aznavour
Actor | Tirez sur le pianiste
Beloved French chanson entertainer Charles Aznavour, who wrote more than 800 songs, recorded more than 1,000 of them in French, English, Italian, German and Spanish and sold over 100 million records in all, was born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian on May 22, 1924, in Paris, the younger of two ...
13. Felix Ryan
Actor | Power Rangers Samurai
Felix Ryan was born on July 5th, 1990 and raised in Los Angeles, CA. His natural skill, ability, and drive brought him into the entertainment industry at the age of 16. After graduating from high school, Felix's career continued to progress, and he found his calling. He is currently in progress of ...
14. Vladek Sheybal
Actor | Red Dawn
Looking back at his filmography, it isn't difficult to imagine Vladek Sheybal in a scene, lobbing Molotov cocktails at advancing German troops, against a backdrop of war-torn Warsaw. However, this part of his life played out for real. A member of the Polish underground, he was twice captured and ...
15. Arlene Francis
Actress | The Thrill of It All
Arlene Francis, the witty actress and popular television personality, was born Arlene Francis Kazanjian on Oct. 20, 1907, in Boston. Her father was an Armenian immigrant, later painter and portrait photographer; her mother was the daughter of actor Alfred Davis. Even at an early age, Arlene said, "...
16. Mariam Vardanyan
Actress | Butterfly's Will
Mariam Vardanyan is an actor, writer, director, and dancer. She has been honing her craft from a very young age. She has done theater and film and is also a very versatile dancer, having chosen Flamenco dancing as her forte. Mariam has the range by evolving diverse characters from different parts ...
17. Sergei Parajanov
Director | Tini zabutykh predkiv
One of the 20th century's greatest masters of cinema Sergei Parajanov was born in Georgia to Armenian parents and it was always unlikely that his work would conform to the strict socialist realism that Soviet authorities preferred. After studying film and music, Parajanov became an assistant ...
18. Michel Legrand
Composer | The Thomas Crown Affair
Michel Legrand is a three-time Academy Award-winning French composer, conductor and pianist who composed over 200 film and television scores as well as recorded over a hundred albums of jazz, popular and classical music.
He was born on February 24, 1932, in Becon-les-Bruyeres, in the Paris suburbs, ...
19. Valerie McCaffrey
Casting_department | Frequency
Born in Fresno, California, to a large Armenian family, she was one of the ten top finalists in California Junior Miss, and after high school, attended University of Hawaii where she studied theatre. Before graduating from California State University Long Beach, she was promotions director of the ...
20. Aram Khachaturyan
Soundtrack | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Aram Khachaturyan was born in 1903, in Tiflis, Russian Empire (now Tbilisi, Georgia). He was the fourth son in a modest Armenian family. His father was a book-binder and a craftsman; he noticed the son's musical talent and got him a used piano, but he did not have money for a music teacher. ...
21. Hovik Keuchkerian
Actor | Assassin's Creed
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, his family moved to Madrid, Spain, when he was three years old. His father was Armenian and his mother is Spanish (from Navarra). He became a boxer and was twice Spanish Heavyweight Champion. After quitting boxing he started a new career as stand-up comedian and writer (he ...
22. William Saroyan
Writer | The Human Comedy
Oscar winner and Pulitzer Prize recipient William Saroyan, who gained world fame with his classic book "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1934), was born in California to Armenak and Takoohi Saroyan.
With his unmistakably American literary works, deeply rooted in his Armenian heritage, ...
23. Mikael Sharafyan
Costume_department | Enchanted
Mikael Sharafyan, originally from Yerevan, Armenia, is an award winning costume designer. Born into a family of artist, he is part of a lineage of entertainers, spanning back several generations. Of the artists, writers, musicians, and actors of his family tree, Levon Sharafyan stands out as a ...
24. Jack Kevorkian
Self | Kevorkian
Controversial pathologist, writer and inventor, Jack Kevorkian was the only son of Levon Kevorkian a former auto-factory worker who owned an excavating company and his homemaker wife. He had 2 sisters. Kevorkian's parents were Armenian refugees, whose relatives were among the 1.5 millon victims of ...
25. Mike Connors
Actor | Mannix
He once jokingly described himself as 'a frustrated song-and-dance man' who wound up typecast as a TV crime fighter. Tall, handsome Armenian-American Mike Connors had a minor career in the movies before becoming a star on the small screen as the impeccably dressed macho sleuth Joe Mannix. Towards ...
26. David Dickinson
Actor | The Impressionable Jon Culshaw
He was born to Eugenie (Jenny) Gulesserian, daughter of Hrant Gulesserian, an Armenian textile trader from Western Armenia/Eastern Turkey, who set up a branch of the family business when he moved from Istanbul to Manchester in 1904. Nothing is known of David's father other than that he was a ...
27. Michael Aloyan
Writer | Hidden
Michael Aloyan is an Armenian filmmaker who was raised in Los Angeles. Born to Armenian immigrants who fled the nation as it was shaken by war in the face of the Soviet Union's collapse, his father was an ambulance driver (a graphic designer back in the home country) and his mother was a social ...
28. Daron Malakian
Soundtrack | Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
Daron Malakian was born July of 1975 in Glendale, California to Armenian immigrant parents. He still lives with his parents in that city. As a child he wanted to play drums but he parents did not want him to because of the factor that drums cannot be turned down. They in turn bought him an electric...
29. Kyle McCaffrey
Actor | Kingdom
Kyle McCaffrey is half Armenian and Half Irish born in Burbank, CA. Mother is casting director/producer Valerie McCaffrey. He has 2 siblings, Kiernan who is a talent agent at Greene and Associates and Vanesa Monarch, (goes under the name of Weather) who is an singer/songwriter and is a singer for a...
30. Sebastien Sisak
Actor | Zashchitniki
Sebastien is a multilingual actor (English, French, Russian and Armenian) with an unusual career-path. Formerly a criminal investigator and legal practitioner, he took his first steps on stage in Nice (France) in 2008. After a few years in French theater, where he performed both in classical and ...
31. Nora Ferrara
Actress | Hollywood
Nora graduated from Santa Monica College, earning four Associate degrees with honors. In 2017, Nora wrote/directed/produced, and acted in her first short film "Dance of Vengeance." In 2018, she wrote/directed/produced, and acted in her second short film "Hollywood." In 2019, the film "Hollywood" ...
32. Armen Dzhigarkhanyan
Actor | Ischeznuvshaya imperiya
Armen Dzhigarkhanyan was awarded the Armenian Republican State Prize in 1975 for "Triangle" and again in 1979 for "Snow in Mourning." He was named People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1985. Dzhigarkhanyan began his acting career in 1955 at the Russian Stanislavsky Theatre in Yerevan, and in 1967 ...
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