Sarah Shahi was born Aahoo Jahansouz in Euless, Texas, to an Iranian father and Spanish mother. She is a former National Football League cheerleader and a great-great-granddaughter of the 19th-century Persian Shah Fath Ali Shah Qajar by Begom Khanom.
Her lineage on the latter side could be traced to a 19th-century shah - in Euless, TX on Jan. 10, 1980, Shahi was an overachiever at an early age, participating in sports and beauty pageants, training as an opera singer, and earning a brown belt in karate.
While exploring that venue, Shahi joined up with the iconic Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders from 1999-2000, ending up as the first rookie to ever grace the cover of their calendar. During this time, she also appeared in layouts for Muscle and Fitness and Curve magazines, and toured the Balkans and Southern Europe as part of the U.S.O.
She relocated to Los Angeles and began working almost immediately in television and film. Shahi graduated quickly from bit parts, to recurring roles on series like "Alias" (ABC, 2001-06) and "Dawson's Creek" (The WB, 1999-2003). A turn in the 2003 theatrical comedy "Old School" also earned her numerous male fans, after she gave an impressive pantomime of oral sex.
Following an unorthodox childhood spent being raised a Buddhist and modeling in New York at a young age, actress Uma Thurman jumped into feature films at 16 years old and never looked back. After mature performances in two independent films, Thurman broke through as an ingénue in the erotic drama "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988).
Her maternal grandfather, Baron Karl von Schlebrugge, was a Swedish nobleman who was jailed by the Nazis during World War II for refusing to betray his Jewish business partners, and her maternal grandmother, Brigit Holmquist, was a famous model in Sweden who, in 1930, posed nude for a statue that overlooked the harbor in Smygehuk.
After leaving the Northfield Mount Herman School, where she performed in plays, and Amherst Regional Junior High School, she moved to New York on her own to attend the Professional Children's School and earn a substantial amount of money as a model.
