{"id":552873,"date":"2026-03-29T19:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/552873\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T19:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:35:08","slug":"sepideh-moafi-told-first-agent-fck-no-to-changing-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/552873\/","title":{"rendered":"Sepideh Moafi Told First Agent “F*ck No” To Changing Name"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAlthough Season 2 fans of The Pitt will recognize Sepideh Moafi<\/a>\u2018s name, she was faced with changing it early in her career.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actress, whose parents came to the US as Iranian refugees before she was born, opened up about the \u201ccomplicated\u201d decision for actors after her first agent tried to convince her to change her name.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I graduated from grad school, my first agent wanted me to change my name and I immediately said, f*ck no,\u201d she told People<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI know actors who have changed their names and there\u2019s no judgment there. And I know a lot of actors, specifically people of color, who have been expected to change their name and haven\u2019t,\u201d said Moafi, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with people who decide to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCurrently starring as Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi on HBO Max\u2019s The Pitt, Moafi has previously appeared on shows like Blue Bloods, Nurse Jackie, The Good Wife, The Blacklist, Elementary, The Deuce and The L Word: Generation Q.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt felt like they needed me to be someone different in order to work or to sell something,\u201d she explained. \u201cI refused. I continued, and I ended up booking my first job and then my second and third, and having a beautiful varied career as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMoafi continued, \u201cI hope anyone who makes that choice makes it for themselves and not because they feel like they need to change who they are in order to be more universally palatable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although Season 2 fans of The Pitt will recognize Sepideh Moafi\u2018s name, she was faced with changing it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,211758],"class_list":{"0":"post-552873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-sepideh-moafi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}