Biography
Reza Diako is an English actor of Austrian nationality and Persian origin. He has taken over the role of 'Apostle Philip' in the worldwide influential TV series The Chosen (2017). A historical drama based on the life of Jesus and those who knew him, the popular series returns in February via its fourth season with a singular viewing experience releasing bi-weekly in theaters. On the big screen, Reza has two upcoming projects: the indie film The Astronaut (2025) (Kate Mara and Laurence Fishburne) as 'Ethan Marshall' the director of NASA and Reading Lolita in Tehran (2024) alongside award-winning actress Golshifteh Farahani and Zar Mir Ebrahimi. The film is based on the best-selling memoir, and Reza portrays 'Bahri', an intellectual literature student caught in the middle of his role as a leading member of the student Islamic society at the University of Allameh Tabatabei in Tehran, and his deep love and respect for both literature for his professor, Azar Nafisi (Golshifteh Farahani), under the backdrop of the early days of Iranian Revolution and the Iran/Iraq War in the early 1980s. The film has opened in Rome International Festival winning two awards and is selected for Palm Springs 2025.
Reza was born in Geneva, Switzerland to Iranian parents, one a painter and the other a businessman. When he was five, he moved to Tehran, Iran with his mother and older sister. Here, he learned to read and write in Farsi (the Persian language), while attending several public and private schools. At the age of twelve, the family moved to Vienna, Austria, attending an American Christian school there. After three years, Reza moved and settled in London, U.K, attending a Jewish International School. In total, he unusually attended ten schools during these years. At the age of 18, he attended Queen Mary University, London to study Psychology, King's College to study Clinical Mental Health, Bristol University to study two years of Medicine, and Birkbeck, University of London to study Psychoanalytic and Jungian Developmental Psychology. This diverse personal and educational experience exposed Reza to a myriad of cultures, ideas, and backgrounds at an early age, shaping the foundation for his acting and project choices.
Reza began acting as leads in theatre productions in school, and in 2014, he began formal training in acting techniques across London. Through this time, he was featured in independent theatre and film projects. In 2017, he performed as part of an international cast in the Phoenix & the Crow, an Edinburgh Fringe Festival production. The following year, he further rained at the Identity School of Acting in the Yat Malmgren Character Analysis technique at Giles Foreman Centre for Acting, in Method Acting at the London School of Method Acting, and in the Meisner technique at the Impulse Company. Reza is also traditionally trained at Mountview Drama School in London and in the Stella Adler Studio in New York. Since graduation, he has completed further acting training at the HB Studio, Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, and with Ivana at The Chubbuck Studio.
In 2018, Reza was cast as ' Harry Razavi' in Transparent (2018), a feature film about homelessness in Central London. He subsequently had lead roles as ' Misha' in Tummyache (2022), a feature film about an ex-famous child actor struggling with addiction, winning several festival awards, and as 'Eli' in Son of Man, a theatre production reflecting on the life of Jesus Christ during his adolescence. He was later featured in the theatre production, Fatherless Son, a drama about gang violence in the streets of London.
Reza then made his way into mainstream TV and Film projects. He was cast as a regular for both seasons of Apple TV's Original International Emmy Award winning drama, Tehran (2020), in the regular role of 'Shahin.' He also played 'Henri' in ITV's new series, A Spy Among Friends (2022), and featured in the BBC series, Around the World in 80 Days (2021) and in The Son (2022), directed by Florian Zeller.
More recently, Reza appeared in Sundance's 2023 Audience Award and Best Screenwriter Award winning film, The Persian Version (2023), as 'Hamid.' He also played series regular, 'Zak,' in HBO Max and Sky Atlantic's second season of I Hate Suzie (2020). He can also be seen in MBC1 and Shahid Series, London Class (2023), in the regular role of 'Aslan,' in a story about an Iranian family close to the King of Iran, the Shah, who was forced to take refuge in London after the Shah's downfall in 1978. Reza also appears in the role of 'Haadee,' in The Covenant (2023) and in the Netflix Drama, The Diplomat (2023), in the role of 'Basir.'
In his personal life, Reza carried a dream of one day opening a therapy center for children and young people. This dream has fueled his extensive studies and the time he devotes to philanthropic causes, working for many years with young people with autism, and supporting people who are contemplating suicide. He has gathered a wide range of experience working in mental and physical health-care both in hospitals and in the community, supporting people with complex psychosis, learning disabilities, and other health problems. He is also an avid reader of psychology and philosophy, with a particular interest in the work of C.G. Jung, psychoanalysis, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, and developmental psychology. He channels this experience and knowledge of human nature into the character he plays. His main mission in life is to leave it behind one day with a little more truth and a little more love.
