Liraz Charhi


Liraz Charhi is an Iranian-Israeli actress, singer, and dancer. She is the niece of singer Rita Jahan-Farouz.

Early life and education

Liraz Charhi was born in Ramla, Israel, to an Iranian Jewish family.
Charhi began singing and performing at the age of 6, and made her debut as stage actress at the Habima National Theatre, where she worked professionally from age 11 to 14; then she studied at the Beit Zvi Stage Arts School.
She was enlisted as a soldier to the Israel Defense Forces, serving in the military band of the Education and Youth Corps, until 1999.

Career

Charhi appeared in the Israeli TV series Ha-Masa'it in 2002 and gained further attention after a nomination by the Israeli Film Academy for her role in the 2004 film Turn Left at the End of the World. She was invited to the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2006, and afterwards started pursuing a career in Hollywood.
Charhi has since become known for her roles in the French mini TV series Revivre, and the films, Fair Game and A Late Quartet in which she played the jogger and flamenco dancing girlfriend of Philip Seymour Hoffman.
As a singer she has released the singles "Od Tzohorayim" and "Al Tafsik" which have been played on radio in Israel. Charhi's first album sung in Persian, Naz, was released in 2018.
In November 2020, Charhi's second Persian album, titled Zan, was released on Glitterbeat Records in collaboration with Raman Loveworld and some other Iranian artists. Some artists collaborated anonymously, and some have joined the project publicly, despite the risks involved in collaborating with an Israeli artist. The first release from the album was "Injah".
In 2020, she played Yael Kadosh, an Israeli Mossad agent in the Israeli espionage television series Tehran, written by Zonder and Omri Shenhar and directed by Daniel Syrkin. The series is about the Iran–Israel proxy conflict; and it premiered in Israel on 22 June 2020 and on 25 September 2020 internationally on Apple TV+.
In 2023, she was offered a role in Roland Emmerich's historical drama series, Those About to Die. She ultimately had to turn the role down due to tour commitments with her music career.
In June 2025, Charhi said that her international music career had faced setbacks since the October 7 attacks. Three days after the attacks, most of her planned UK concerts were cancelled. Her London-based record label delayed the release of her sixth studio album and asked her to take a pro-Palestine political stance on social media. Charhi subsequently moved to another label.
She was a songwriter for the 2025 film, Reading Lolita in Tehran, directed by Eran Riklis and based on the Iranian memoir of the same name by Azar Nafisi. She also stars in the 2025 Nickelodeon adventure series, Quest.

Personal life

Charhi was married to Israeli composer and conductor Ziv "Kojo" Cojocaru from 2004 to 2010. She married Israeli actor Tom Avni and they have two daughters.

Discography

Albums

  • Naz
  • Zan
  • ''Roya''

EPs

  • ''Enerjy - انرژی''

Songs / videos

  • Zan Bezan
  • Injah
  • ''Bia Bia''