If you haven’t already heard of 27-year-old Medalion Rahimi, you soon will. Over the last few years, she’s worked her way through a steady stream of ever bigger parts, with her latest, a regular role on NCIS: Los Angeles, set to catapult her to household name status. Get to know her better with these 10 little facts.
1. She’s played a princess twice
Rahimi clearly convinces as royalty. Despite being only 27 years old, she’s already played two princesses over the course of her relatively short career. First up was the role of Princess Zara Al Salim on ABC’s The Catch (2016). A year later, she took on the role of Princess Isabella in the soapy period costume drama Still Star-Crossed, her first opportunity to play a lead role and her second to don a crown.
2. She’s paid her dues
Rahimi might be enjoying her pick of roles these days, but it took a lot of hard work and some frustrations along the way to get to that point. Before she started being cast in the likes of Still Star-Crossed, The Outpost, and NCIS: Los Angeles, she mainly played “stereotypical versions of what a man might think a woman’s role should be.” Thankfully, as she later found out, “you work your way up.”
3. She’s an advocate for diversity
As a first-generation Iranian, Rahimi doesn’t feel represented in marketing and TV in the West- an issue she spoke openly about with Teen Vogue. “If you see ads with a certain girl who looks like you, you’ll be like, ‘Oh, I want to wear that makeup. It looks good on her, maybe it’ll look good on me,'” she says. “And it’s rare that I see somebody who I can relate to.” She’s similarly dismayed about the lack of diversity in Hollywood, calling out transgressions like the casting of white actor Zach McGowan as native Hawaiian World War II hero Benehakaka “Ben” Kanahele in Ni’ihau for criticism. “If [the character] is specific to that culture, I think they should try and find somebody who is actually of that ethnicity,” she’s opined.
4. She dreams of starting her own makeup line
She may not feel particularly represented in beauty campaigns at the moment, but if the actress has her way, she soon will. Although she’s got no plans on abandoning her day job, she’d love to one day launch her own beauty line specializing in skin products and hair treatments that represent the full spectrum of cultures and ethnicities.
5. She’s all about empathy
If there’s a characteristic that Rahimi most values in herself and others, it’s empathy, a trait that’s not only helped her in her personal life, but as an actor as well. “Empathy is very important to me. Being an actor it is a personal characteristic that has helped me. Being a friend, empathy is everything,” she told Grazia.”Trying to have empathy is the only way that we can move forward as a society. People who don’t have empathy are the monsters we are encountering in today’s political climate. Trump is a person who doesn’t have empathy. Those are the people who don’t have empathy. Those are the people we should be afraid of.”
6. She made her film debut in Fat City, New Orleans
So far, Rahimi has concentrated mainly on TV roles, although that’s not to say she hasn’t been able to find time to film a few movies in the process. In 2011, she made her big-screen debut in Fat City, New Orleans as Miss Barnett. Since then, she’s appeared as Sister 1 in Misogynist (2013), Alexis Diaz in Extraction (2015), and as Elody as Before I Fall (2017).
7. She survived The Lost Boys cull
In early 2019, The CW commissioned a pilot based on everyone’s favorite 1980s vampire film, The Lost Boys. Kiele Sanchez was hired to play Lucy, Tyler Posey and Rio Mangini were bought on board as her sons Michael and Sam, Del Zamora was given the part of Lucy’s father Frank, while Cheyenne Haynes and Haley Tju were cast as Liza and Cassie Frog. Dakota Shapiro, meanwhile, was asked to play the vampire David, while David’s girlfriend Stella was played by Rahimi. After the pilot was shot, The CW raised some serious concerns, suggesting that a “major recasting” might be in order. And when they said “major,” they meant it. Following a rejig, the only two actors that were asked back for a second pilot were Dakota Shapiro as David and, you guessed it, Medalion Rahimi as Stella.
8. She’s been approached by beauty lines
Rahimi has spoken about how she wants to start her own beauty line one day, and has already been approached by various lines to act as their “face”. So far, it looks likes she’s holding out until she can put her own name on the label, telling The Daily Mail, ‘I’ve been lucky enough to be approached by beauty lines. Things haven’t panned out at this time, but [it’s significant] for being an Iranian-American.”
9. She was bullied at high school
After enjoying popularity throughout most of her schooling, things took a turn for Rahimi during her senior year in high school. Overnight, all her friends decided to ostracize her in that arbitrary way that teenage girls sometimes have. “They completely decided they didn’t want to be my friend anymore and continued to bully me throughout the year because I didn’t mesh with them or fit into their friendship standards,” she shared with Grazia.
10. She’s been upped to a series regular on NCIS: Los Angeles
In January 2020, CBS announced that after appearing in nine episodes of the previous season as a recurring, they were upping Rahimi’s role on NCIS: Los Angeles to that of a series regular. “We were excited to work with Medallion last season and are thrilled to have her now joining us a season regular on NCIS: Los Angeles,” executive producer R. Scott Gemmill said of the decision.
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