Meet the Cast of "Wish You Were Here"

Theatre is a close-knit community. SCR’s production of Wish You Were Here has a lovely symmetry: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi grew up in and around SCR, and all five of the talented actors in the cast are making their SCR debuts. Four of the five have also played roles in previous productions of Wish You Were Here, or Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning English.

Sahar Bibiyan returns to Wish You Were Here, this time in the role of Rana. Her theatre credits include English at Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre and Berkeley Repertory, as well as Wish You Were Here at Yale Repertory Theatre and Haram! Iran at Emerging Artists Theatre. Some of her film and television credits include Uncut Gems, “Mr. Robot” and “Chicago Justice.” She is also the voice of Dimah in the video game Just Cause 3.

Tara Grammy will be playing the role of Salme. Her most recent theatre credits include the role of Elham in two productions of English at Studio Theatre and The Old Globe. Other credits include the one-woman show Mahmoud, which won the 2012 Best of Toronto Fringe and the 2012 New York Fringe Encore Series Excellence in Solo Performance Award. She is a host on “Persia’s Got Talent,” part of the “Got Talent” franchise. She recently starred in the hit romantic comedy A Simple Wedding, and holds a BA in Theatre Performance from the University of Toronto.

Mitra Jouhari will be playing the role of Zari. She is one-third of the cast of “Three Busy Debras,” which ran for two seasons on “Adult Swim” and won a WGA award in its second season. She has written for “Big Mouth,” “Human Resources,” and “Miracle Workers,” among others. Her onscreen and voice acting appearances include “Abbott Elementary,” “I Think You Should Leave,” “The Bear,” “Digman!” and The Big Sick. She has performed sold-out live comedy shows all over the country, and has written essays for The New York Times, McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, Flaunt and Los Angeles Review of Books.

Nazanin Nour also returns to Wish You Were Here, this time as Nazanin. Her theatre credits include Wish You Were Here at Playwrights Horizons, English at Studio Theatre and Barrington Stage Company, Pack of Lies at The Little Theatre of Alexandria and Othello at Vpstart Crow Productions. She co-wrote and starred in the horror short All Of You, which screened at multiple festivals around the world, and co-starred in the short film The Last King, which was the first Persian language adaptation of a Stephen King story. She created and currently hosts a new digital variety show called Mehmooni with Nazanin.

Artemis Pebdani reprises the role of Shideh, which she originated in Wish You Were Here’s Off-Broadway debut at Playwrights Horizons. She received her BFA in Theatre from Southern Methodist University, continued her studies at The Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre and honed her skills at improv and sketch comedy houses around Los Angeles. You may recognize her face (or voice) thanks to many TV programs, animated films and video games, including “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “The Goldbergs,” “Modern Family,” “The Croods: Family Tree” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks.”

Awmi Abdi-Bahri returns to SCR and Wish You Were Here as an understudy. She is a multidisciplinary actor and writer based in both Los Angeles and New York City. Her theatre credits include Wish You Were Here at Yale Repertory, POTUS or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive at Shubert Theatre on Broadway, Persian Pod at Ars Nova and Bismillah at The Wild Project. Her television and film credits include “Girls on the Bus,” “Evil,” “Ahamed’s Ramadan Diary” and Eradication. As a writer, her latest theatrical play, Three Tall Persian Women, had its world premiere at Shakespeare and Company, which she also starred in this past summer and fall to glowing reviews.