Aahoo Jahansouz "Sarah" Shahi (Persian: آهو جهانسوز سارا شاهی ‎‎; born January 10, 1980) is an American television actress and former NFL Cheerleader. She played Kate Reed in the USA Network legal drama Fairly Legal in 2011–12, she played Carmen on The L Word in 2008, and currently stars as Sameen Shaw on the CBS crime drama Person of Interest. She has also appeared as the main female role Det. Dani Reese in Life, and in supporting roles in The L Word and Alias.

Early life

Sarah Shahi was born on January 10, 1980, in Euless, Texas, and raised there. She is the daughter of Mah Monir, an interior designer, and Abbas Jahansouz Shahi, who divorced when she was ten. Her father is from Iran. Her mother's father is Persian and her mother's mother is from Spain. 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, who was working at the American Embassy in Iran, was slated for execution when the regime collapsed in 1979 but was allowed to flee the country. Her birth name, Aahoo (Persian: آهو‎‎), means "gazelle" in Persian. She is a great-great-granddaughter of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar of the Qajar Dynasty, who ruled Iran from 1797 to 1834, by one of his wives, Begom Khanom, daughter of Hossein Qoli Khan Afshar, niece of Begom Khanom, daughter Emam Qoli Khan Afshar, through their son Jahansouz Shah.