Sani Jalalzadeh

Sani Jalalzadeh is a Canadian-Persian bilingual actor, voice over artist, and dancer who grew up mainly in Toronto, and partially in Tehran. Sani officially started her acting career at the start of 2018 when she started her extensive training at the Toronto Film School’s Acting for Film, TV, and Theater after graduating from York University with a BA in Psychology.

Her fascination with the human mind and behaviour is what drew Sani to pursue an academic degree, delving into the realm of psychology to better understand the workings of the human psyche. This same love and deep interest in the broad range of human emotion and its portrayal combined with a vividly creative imagination and an active sense of play is what led Sani to acting.

Since graduating on the President’s List and with Honors from TFS, Sani was recently nominated for Best Female Performance in TFsFF for her performance in The Burning Cold. Other short films featuring Sani have been selected for screenings and as finalists, semifinalists, and official selections in multiple film festivals worldwide. Hudood (2019, Daraksha Rehman), with Sani’s portrayal of Sumaiya, who’s an accomplice to the honor killings of her own daughters, was selected at Venice Shorts 2020, Bridge Fest 2020, Indo American International Festival of World Cinema 2020, as a semi-finalist at Directors Cut Int’l Film Festival 2020, & as a finalist at Independent Shorts Awards 2020. The Burning Cold was screened at the Lift-Off Film Festival 2020 & Kalaka Film Festival 2020 and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director in the TFsFF 2020. Throughout her young acting career, Sani has been involved mainly in filmed productions, commercials, and music videos as well as a handful of theater productions such as The Life of Jude (Helen Gardiner Theater) where she was lauded for bringing “ maturity and authority to the role of Jude’s mother, Theresa” (Alex Poch-Goldin, Toronto Film School News).

Throughout her education at TFS, she was trained under brilliant teachers, in a broad range of skills such as intense vocal and movement exploration, along with various acting techniques from on camera acting to theatre and improv, as well as various styles of voice-over and voice development. Her time at TFS also exposed her extensively to the production side of filmmaking and writing early on. Sani was Greenlit to write, produce, co-direct, and act in her own short for her thesis film ‘Come As You Are’ with a full crew composed of TFS’s production students and alumni, further expanding her film family along her journey through film school. This experience has helped shape Sani’s deep appreciation for every bit of hard work that goes into all aspects of a production.

Sani strives for perpetual growth and is committed to bettering herself as a performer daily. She is fluent in Farsi (written and spoken) and has received training in several forms of dance, including Belly Dancing, Tango, Salsa, the Foxtrot, Persian traditional dance, and hip-hop. Sani is currently training her musical voice with Louisa Burgess and is always on the lookout for new opportunities to hone her skills and to add to her list of talents.

When not acting, Sani loves pottery, sculpting, painting, and playing with her dog Zelda. She looks forward to growing as an artist with da Costa Talent, filled with excitement and gratitude for the next challenge to devote her creative energy into.