If landing a small role in **Ben Affleck’**s Oscar-winning film Argo marked the beginning of **Sheila Vand’**s ascent, this week is her big breakout moment. Not only did her first TV series, State of Affairs, premiere on Monday night, but her indie film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, opens tomorrow after a successful run on the festival circuit. It seems the stars have finally aligned for Vand, who has had her sights set on acting since she was in middle school. “It’s really the one thing I never quit,” she says. “I tried everything—music, sports—and nothing stuck with me, except this.”
She continued her studies throughout college, and shortly after graduating, she landed a guest spot in the NBC crime drama Life. Looking back, Vand can't believe her luck. “I thought to myself, 'This wasn’t so hard. I can do this!’ ” she says. “I was expecting a hard time even getting a SAG card, so I took this as a gesture from the universe that I was on the right track.” After working on a short-lived web series and a few plays, she eventually scored a role opposite the late Robin Williams in the Broadway show Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. It was around that time when she heard of a new movie that was looking to cast several Middle Eastern actors. Vand, whose parents are Iranian immigrants who fled from the Iran-Iraq war to California, immediately put herself on tape hoping to get an audition. As her good fortune would have it, she not only got an audition with Affleck himself but eventually landed the part of the helpful housekeeper who worked in the Canadian ambassador’s home.
Vand’s latest project, and her first starring feature, pulls from her Persian background again: She’s playing a skateboarding vigilante vampire (yes, you read that right) in the Sundance darling A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. The film, written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, is entirely in Farsi, which her bilingual upbringing prepared her for handily. “My parents were really strict about speaking it at home,” she says. “As a kid, I was kind of a punk about it and spoke to them in English. Now that I’m older, I realize it’s really cool to speak another language.”
Now she’s returning to TV with her latest supporting role on NBC’s State of Affairs. Playing CIA analyst Maureen James—whose job consists of assessing security threats to the United States—has had the gratifying effect of ensuring that Vand stays on top of current events just as much as her fictional counterpart. “Even though I was always relatively informed, I started listening to the news every day. So much of the show is referencing real events, I now have to be careful to really know my stuff.” Aside from bingeing on cable news, there’s been another positive side effect from working on a network drama series. “I became an actor because I never wanted a nine-to-five job, but now I’m so grateful that I do,” she says with a laugh. “Even the little things, like having a parking spot. I almost cried when I saw it.”