Biography for
Rosie Malek-Yonan

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Rosie Malek-Yonan was born on the fourth of July, in Tehran, Iran. She is an actress, artist, director, author, documentary filmmaker and activist. She is a descendant of one of the oldest and most prominent Assyrian Christian families from the Middle-East, tracing her Assyrian roots back nearly eleven centuries. The Malek Family was a famous tribe that came from the Assyrian Vithis village of Geogtapah in Urmia, Northwestern Iran.

In the late 18th century, Geogtapah was the setting for the famous tragic love story of Aslee and Karam. Aslee, a young woman from the House of Malek fell in love with a commoner named Karam. After the two lovers met their untimely death, a stone well was built in the Geogtapah as a memorial to Aslee where travelers often stopped to hear the tragic story from the locals. This tragic love story has been recounted in numerous Assyrian and Russian books and has often been compared to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. A Russian opera was composed by the same title. Recordings of it are still in existence.

The Malek Family has produced many famous sons and daughters. Rosie's father, George Malek-Yonan, was Iran's Champion of Champions with numerous gold medals in track and field and pentathlon, who became an international attorney. He is credited with securing a seat for the Assyrian Christians as a recognized minority in the Iranian Parliament. This was a huge milestone for a nation without a country since the fall of the Assyrian Empire.

Rosie's mother, Lida Malek-Yonan (1928-2002) was well known humanitarian and activist who tirelessly worked a lifetime demanding rights for Assyrian Christian women in Iran and secured their recognition by establishing the Assyrian Women's Organization, the only Assyrian organization officially recognized as a charter member of the Iranian Women's Association.

Rosie's grandparents left their ancestral homeland in Iran, during the Great Exodus from Urmia. Before WWII, the Malek-Yonan family returned to Tehran where her parents met and were married. Rosie has a younger sister, Monica who works with her very closely on most of her projects.

Rosie and Monica were members of the Iranian 1980 Winter Olympic Team but decided not to compete after the Iranian Revolution made it virtually impossible when the new Islamic Government required them to become Muslim, wear scarves and long skirts, and perform without music.

After World War I, Rosie's great-great-uncle, Dr. Jesse Malek-Yonan, represented the Assyrians of Urmia, Iran, during the Paris Peace Talks in 1919.

Besides being an actress, Rosie is a classically trained pianist, composer, director, writer, documentary filmmaker, and figure skater. She began studying piano at the age of four. By the time she was in her teens, she attended the Tehran Conservatory of music and was competing and winning many national piano competitions in Iran. When in 1972 she won first place at a national piano competition in Iran, she was invited by Queen Farah Pahlavi to play at a Command Performance for the Royal Family.

After receiving her L.C. degree in English from the University of Cambridge, she permanently moved to America and continued studying classical piano with Saul Joseph at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and soon thereafter began studying acting with Ray Reinhardt at the American Conservatory Theatre.

She graduated from San Francisco State University with two degrees in Music and after winning an invitation to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she finally moved to Los Angeles. She also studied acting at the historic Pasadena Playhouse for a short time.

She has directed and written many plays that have been produced and performed on stage in Los Angeles to rave reviews.

Rosie made her television debut on the series Dynasty in 1982, immediately followed by a national commercial for AT&T where she spoke in Assyrian (from the Aramaic), a language that years later director Mel Gibson would use in The Passion of the Christ.

Since the early 1980's Rosie has continually appeared on notable television shows, films and plays, acting opposite many of Hollywood's leading actors. Most recently, she played the role of Nuru Il-Ebrahim, opposite Reese Witherspoon in New Line Cinema's Rendition, by Oscar winning director, Gavin Hood.

She is an outspoken activist and advocate of issues dealing with her Assyrian nation. These days she works mainly at bringing attention to the the plight of today's Assyrians in Iraq and the Middle-East since the beginning of the 2003 Iraq War.

Rosie is the author of The Crimson Field, an historical and literary epic novel, purportedly based on real events and true family chronicles set to the backdrop of WorldWar I. When her book was brought to the attention of Congress, on 30 June 2006, she, was invited to testify on Capitol Hill before a Congressional Committee of the 109th Congress on religious freedom regarding the genocide, massacres and persecution of Assyrians in Iraq by Kurds and Islamists. She compared the events of 1914-1918, as depicted in The Crimson Field, to the current plight of the indigenous Assyrian Christians in Iraq. Her passionate testimony and plea to the U.S. government, ultimately prompted Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ) to travel to war-torn Iraq to witness matters for himself. While in Iraq, after meeting with local Assyrians, he turned in Malek-Yonan's report to U.S. Officials in Iraq. One year later, a Congressional appropriations subcommittee unanimously voted to send $10 million to aid the Assyrian Christians in Iraq.

Monica Malek-Yonan's documentary film, My Assyrian Nation on the Edge, is based on Rosie's Congressional Testimony. It was released September 2006. Now in cooperation with Seyfo Center in Holland, an organization that deals with issues concerning the Assyrian Genocide, the documentary will be released in Europe in 2007 in French, German, Swedish and Dutch.

In 2006, Zinda Magazine selected The Crimson Field as The Assyrian Event of the Year 6755/2005.

Various media sources including The Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, the U.K. Iraqi Study have quoted and used Rosie's Congressional Testimony and her various published articles, speeches and interviews regarding the current state of affairs in Iraq concerning its Assyrian Christian indigenous people. She is frequently invited to speak at Universities (Berkeley, U.C. Merced), Schools, Churches and Civic Organizations around the globe.

Trivia

Composer.

Concert Pianist.

Figure Skater - 1980 Winter Olympic Team.

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