Shiva Rose

Shiva Rose (born Shiva Rose Afshar; February 8, 1969) is an Iranian-American actress, activist, and blogger.

She was born in Santa Monica, California and is of Irish and Persian/Iranian descent. Her father, Parviz Gharib-Afshar, was an Iranian television personality and currently has a show on the Persian Broadcasting Company, Tapesh. Her mother, Carol June was an opera singer, and had a television show in Iran.

Rose's past film credits include the 20th Century Fox feature The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest, directed by Mick Jackson and HBO's original film 61*, directed by Billy Crystal. Shiva also starred in the independent film Black Days and was featured at the 2001 Slamdance Film Festival. She has also appeared in the features Myron's Movie and Red Roses and Petrol with Malcolm McDowell, and Silent Madness-Hollywood Babylon in which she plays the legendary silent screen star Louise Brooks. She completed the short film DysEnchanted, playing the role of Snow White, which premiered at Sundance in January 2004.

Rose starred in the critically acclaimed and award-winning independent film and romantic comedy, David & Layla, which won Prix du Public at the Amour Film Festival 2007 in Europe. David & Layla was awarded over La Vie en Rose, 2 Days in Paris and Lady Chatterley.

Rose won the Jury & President's Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, for her first lead role in a feature film as "Layla" in David & Layla.

David & Layla was Official Selection at 28 International Film Festivals, winning eight awards. It had a successful roll-out distribution in U.S. major cities from summer 2007 onward, with a Valentine's Day opening at The Quad in New York in 2008, ending at Sundance Kabuki theater in San Francisco in March 2008. It is now scheduled to be available on DVD at both Netflix and Blockbuster.

Her television credits include the Lifetime series "The Division", "Gideon's Crossing" and "The Practice" for ABC. Recently, she appeared in CSI: Miami as the recurring character Sonya. She also appeared as herself on an episode of "The Young and the Restless".

Rose has appeared in numerous productions at the Pacific Resident Theater, including roles in The Swan, Eve Ensler's Necessary Target, and My Antonia. She has also worked at The Berkshire Theater Festival, The Roundabout Theater in New York and The Mark Taper Forum. Her favorite theater credits include: Hennie in Awake and Sing, Therese in Therese Raquin, Joan in Caryl Churchull's Far Away, and Antonia in My Antonia.

While attending college at the University of California, Los Angeles, she founded Resource, a program to feed the homeless. She is a sponsor for VIP (Violence Intervention Program), which helps abused children, and volunteers at Caring for Children and Families with AIDS (CCFA) in Los Angeles. She is active with the organization V-Day, created by Eve Ensler, her former mother-in-law, to end violence against women. Shiva has been asked to be a spokesperson for Amnesty International's Refugee Program. Shiva writes human rights essays on her own blog at The Huffington Post.

Rose was married to American actor Dylan McDermott in 1995 and they have two children, Colette (1996) and Charlotte Rose (2005). On September 27, 2007, People magazine confirmed that Rose and McDermott had separated. Nearly eight months after the duo announced they had separated, the actor filed for divorce from his wife on May 21, 2008. Without either using lawyers, they peacefully separated as friends, with joint custody of their children. Their divorce was finalized on January 2, 2009. She resides with their daughters in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.