Early life, family, educational background
Armenian-American actress Angela Sarafyan was born on 30 June 1983, in Yerevan, Armenia. Her family moved to Los Angeles, United States when she was four, where she grew up with her brother, Karbis. Their mother, Zara, is a painter, and their father Grigor is an actor.
As a young girl, she played classical piano and attended ballet lessons. She went to the Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, then attended Pasadena City College in California.
Career
She appeared in several Cingular Wireless commercials, and was eventually nicknamed ‘the Cingular umbrella girl.’
She also featured in Herbal Essences and Coca-Cola commercials, and in 2010 she appeared in a Captain Morgan’s Lime Bite commercial, and a national State Farm Insurance commercial.
Television
In 2000 Angela debuted as Aisha Al-Jamal in “Judging Amy” in the episode entitled “Culture Clash”, and was then Lori in the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode “Him.”
In 2008 she played a recurring role as Tasha Turischeva in the USA Network series “In Plain Sight”, followed two years later as the socially awkward and offbeat Samantha Evans in “The Good Guys.”
Since 2016 she has been playing android Clementine Pennyfeather in “Westworld.”
Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan created the HBO produced dystopian Western series based on the 1973 eponymous film, which was directed and written by Michael Crichton; the sequel, “Futureworld” premiered in 1976. The series’ plot begins in the technologically-advanced and fictional amusement park, Westworld, which is wild-west-themed. Android hosts cater to rich guests who want to live out wild fantasies without retaliation from the hosts, who are programmed against harming humans. Later in the series, the story takes place in Rehoboam, the mid-21st century real world, which is controlled and managed by powerful artificial intelligence.
The series premiered in 2014 on HBO with the episode “True Detective”, and has since topped the network’s viewership ratings.
On top of that, the show’s first season is the most-watched of any HBO original series. In its first season, critics praised the series for its themes, visuals, narrative, the actors’ performances, and the musical score by Ramin Djawadi. The series as a whole continued to receive praise in its second and third seasons, but specific storylines and characters have received criticism. The third season premiered on 15 March 2020 and concluded with the eighth episode on 3 May 2020.
In April 2020, HBO announced the series’ renewal for season four. “Westworld” has received 43 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and won nine of them.
Angela has also made guest appearances in multiple series, including “The Mentalist” as Adrianna Jonovic, Madison Grant in “The Division,” “South of Nowhere” as Paige, and Philippa ‘Phil’ Abruzzi in “Cold Case.”
Film
In 2004 Angela played Lauren in her film debut in “The Last Run.” In 2007 she appeared in “On the Doll” as Tara and “Kabluey” as Ramona.
In 2008 Angela was cast as Maggie in “A Beautiful Life,” an American drama directed by Alejandro Chomski, adapted from “Jersey City,” a play written by Wendy Hammond.
Angela’s character, Maggie, is trying to escape from her abusive father. Jesse Garcia plays David, an illegal immigrant living in Los Angeles, looking for his mother and working as a dishwasher. Maggie and David cross paths and eventually fall in love.
That year she also played Mary in “The Informers,”, an American Hollywood ensemble drama directed by Gregor Jordan and written by Nicholas Jarecki and Bret Easton Ellis, adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’ eponymous collection of short stories published in 1994. The film was shot in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and Uruguay.
In 2012 Angela appeared in “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2.”
Her character, Tia, is an Egyptian vampire and the mate of Benjamin, who is played by Rami Malek. Initially, Angela auditioned to play Irina, but the role was given to Maggie Grace. Later that year, she played Ani in “Lost and Found in Armenia.”
The following year she was Allison in “Paranoia”, opposite Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Liam Hemsworth,and Amber Heard. Robert Luketic directed the American thriller, and Jason Hall and Barry L. Levy wrote the screenplay. The film was loosely adapted from Joseph Finder’s 2004 eponymous novel, but the film received negative reviews and was a box office fail, making $16 million at the box office from a budget of $35 million; Rotten Tomatoes described the film as ‘clichéd and unoriginal’ and gave it a 7% rating.
Angela played Maral in 2016’s “The Promise,” about the Armenian Genocide. More recently, in 2019 she played the supporting role of Joanna in the Netflix biographical crime drama “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.” Joe Berlinger directed the film based on Elizabeth Kendall’s memoir about her ex-boyfriend Ted Bundy, entitled “The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy.” Michael Werwie adapted the screenplay.
Other
She appeared in Britney Spears’ “Stronger” music video in 2001.
Personal life
After filming “Breaking Dawn” from the Twilight franchise, she was rumored to be dating her co-star, Rami Malek.
Neither ever confirmed their relationship, and the Golden Globe winner is now dating his “Bohemian Rhapsody” co-star, Lucy Boynton.
Angela was rumored to be dating singer Nick Jonas in early 2018, but once again the relationship was never confirmed, and Nick is now married to actress Priyanka Chopra.
Appearance
Angela’s hair is brunette, and she has green eyes. She’s is 5ft 8ins (1.73m) tall, weighs around 126lbs (57kgs), and her vital statistics are 35-24-35.
Net worth and salary
As of mid-2020, Angela’s net worth is estimated at over $6 million, accumulated from her acting career now spanning two decades.
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