Anthony Azizi started his career many years ago, as a child, acting in plays for the Touchstone Theater run by Bill and Bridget George in Bethlehem, PA. He also started writing and staging his own plays at the age of eight for school and other public venues. He continued in the arts throughout all of his schooling. Anthony attended Freedom High School where went to school with fellow alums Daniel Dae Kim and Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson. Anthony attributes the love for acting and the inspiration to pursue it as a career to Cathy Caparrazo and Mrs. Bauer while attending Freedom High School. Anthony was accepted to Muhlenberg College with a soccer scholarship, but soon fell into acting once again after a very bad knee injury ended his collegiate soccer career. While at Muhlenberg he received his BFA in Theater Arts and soon was performing in many of the plays and musicals at Muhlenberg. He starred in the world premier of accomplished playwright Jim Ryan's "South Pacific Snow" and was nominated for an Irene Ryan award for his portrayal of Sam in "The Miss Firecracker Contest." Anthony gives a lot of the credit for choosing a career in acting to Charlie Richter who was the head of the theater department at Muhlenberg. He believes that Richter's belief in him translated to belief in himself to make the choice of moving ahead with his professional career. Upon graduating, Anthony moved straight to New York and lived with his college buddy Spencer Holover. Although broke, Anthony believes that his "starving acting" period in New York was some of his happiest years as an artist. Anthony did not waste any time starting to do plays all over New York including working at the famed Ensemble Studio Theater run by the late Kurt Dempster and the Thirteenth St. Reparatory Company run by the legendary Edith O'Hara. It was at the 13th Street Rep where he finally got noticed in New York in the play "Three of a Kind." The play landed him his first agent and soon it was off to Los Angeles. Anthony ran his own theater company in New York called The Clandestine Group which used 13th Street's space to stage its own productions. Once in LA, Anthony started working quickly in film and television. In 1996, Bryan Spicer hired him to play one of Tim Curry's sidekicks in the Universal feature McHale's Navy. Anthony attributes this film to be one of his first and biggest breaks in his career. Anthony also credits Curry for mentoring him through his first studio picture by graciously teaching him the dos and don'ts of the business. Soon after McHale's Navy other roles started coming in including Three Kings with George Clooney, For Richer or Poorer with Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley, Tomcats with Jerry O'Connell, and many TV guest spots working with some of the best in the business including Geena Davis, Viola Davis, Donald Sutherland, Mahershalal Ali, Michelle Monaghan, Hugh Laurie, Tom Hanks, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Chiklis, and many more.
In 2003, Azizi landed his first series in ABC's one hour drama Threat Matrix starring opposite Mahershalal Ali, James Denton and Kelly Rutherford. He played Mo', a courageous Egyptian-American former CIA agent assigned to an elite task force whose mission is to keep the country safe from terrorism. After extensive research, it came to light that Anthony was the first Iranian American actor in history to be a series regular on a network one hour drama and holds this as one of the most crowning achievements in his career.
In 2005 Anthony got a call from Rod Lurie asking him to do his series Commander in Chief. No time was wasted in saying yes to the groundbreaking series about the first female president of the United States starring Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland. It was to be one of the most fulfilling experiences in Azizi's career. He played Vince Taylor, Chief Aid to the President of the United States, and his character was gay and had HIV. The show was critically acclaimed and the pilot was seen by 17 million viewers. Commander in Chief received a Peoples Choice Award nomination in 2005, as well as a GLAAD nomination for best series primarily because of Anthony's portrayal of Vince Taylor.
In 2006, Anthony starred opposite Tony Shalhoub in the film AmericanEast for director Hesham Issawi. The film has been an official selection for many of the world's most prominent film festivals and has won numerous awards. The film addresses the relationship between Muslims and Jews living in Los Angeles. Anthony considers this among his most important pieces of work on film.
In 2008, Anthony Azizi recurred on the hit TV series Lost playing Omar which reunited him with his dear friend Daniel Dae Kim whom he went to high school with.
Anthony has gone on to star in many other shows. He recently played Orion on Star Trek: Piccard and is in the most recent season of Tehran starring with his long time friend Shaun Toub.
In 2016 Bart Sher cast him in the JT Rogers Broadway hit show OSLO playing Ahmed Qurie. The show went on to win every single theater award there was to win including the Tony for Best Play. Anthony won an Obie Award that year as well. It was single handedly Anthony’s most important artistic achievement. He says it was also the most fulfilling.
Anthony continues to work steadily with many projects coming up, including ones he’s producing and writing.
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