Ali Afshar bio
Early Life
Raised in Northern California, Ali Afshar grew up in the green Sonoma Mountains of Petaluma. His passion for speed and entertaining was evident at a very early age as his family could often find him racing motorcycles and horses at the age of 5 on their 200 acre ranch. The son of Eskandar Afshar and Leila Kasra Afshar, he is the youngest of 3 brothers. His father is an international agricultural business man and his mother was a world renowned Persian poet and lyricist before her passing in 1989. In addition to his parents guiding influence, Ali experienced a vast variety of life experiences following in the footsteps of his two older brothers, Pasha and John. He grew up competing in Break-Dancing & Bicycle Freestyle events all over Northern California. Once he tasted freedom with his driver's license at age 16, Ali won his first High School Challenge for drag racing at Sears Point International Raceway, representing Casa Grande High School. Through high school, Ali could be found almost every week at the Sears Point Raceway competing in the Wednesday Night Drags, racing his classic 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. If he wasn’t racing he was in wrestling practice honing his skills. Ali was an outstanding wrestler and set numerous school records. His diligence paid off and made him a California State Finalist in 1991.
After high school, Ali turned his attention to his dream of acting and relocated to Los Angeles. While fulfilling his parents wishes of studying medicine at California State University Northridge, he began to pursue a career in acting for movies and television. Ali immediately started learning from some of the most talented teachers available in Los Angeles and started auditioning. He quickly landed his first job as a skateboarder in a Pepsi commercial and was then cast as the principal actor in a commercial for the Southern California family water park "Raging Waters". Ali paired his acting and racing income to pay for his tuition for college which ultimately led to his graduation from California State University Northridge with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Biology as a pre-med major. However, his true desires soon led him away from medicine and toward Hollywood.
While pursuing his acting career, Ali also founded Easy Street Motorsports (also known as ESX Motorsports), an automotive performance and race facility that eventually led him to race for Subaru of America and achieved a certain celebrity racing status. ESX became a 2 Time NHRA National & World Champion Team, 18 Time NHRA event champion, 2005 Rally America Champion (with Rocket Rally) and dozens of Import Face Off, IDRC, NOPI and Battle of the Imports series all while setting multiple world records! Ali also created the exclusive and highly anticipated "Ali Afshar Signature Series ESX'' line of Aston Martin and Subaru vehicles that are sold directly through Subaru and Aston Martin dealerships across the nation. Ali also built the one of a kind, carbon fiber, full tube chassis, 1400HP, all-wheel drive Subaru. This Subaru set the record for the World's Quickest and Fastest All Wheel Drive car and the World's Fastest Subaru! This Subaru thundered down the 1/4 mile in 7.9 seconds at over 175 MPH back in 2006, and now Ali pilots a twin turbo 2000 horsepower 2013 Subaru BRZ that has blasted down the 1/4 mile in 7.2 seconds and is on it’s way to be the first Subaru to run a 6 second 1/4 mile!
Ali landed his first major television acting role, as (a very fitting) mechanic-racer named "Grease" on the NBC show "Saved By The Bell". He then started working on a string of feature films such as “Three Kings”, “Godzilla”, HBO's "Guardian" and “The Siege”. Ali got his first taste of working with great talent on these projects that included award winning directors and actors!
While most of his feature film projects were dramatic roles, Ali started showing his comedic funny bone on the small screen and landed the recurring role of "Sanjib" on the CBS hit show “The King Of Queens”. He kept the smiles going as he worked on another CBS sitcom "City Guys", had a blast as the singing foreign exchange student "Bjorgy" on the FOX children show "The Masked Rider" and kept everyone on their toes with the very funny "Jamie Kennedy Experiment". While he was doing all of this "on camera" work, Ali also enjoyed a voice over gig that spanned over 3 years as the voice of the "Phantom Ranger" on the hit FOX/Saban children TV show "Power Rangers".
Ali soon returned to his dramatic strengths and landed a 4 episode arc on the CBS show "JAG". He continued in his serious ways and worked on two more CBS shows, "NCIS" and "The Agency.” He also booked guest spots on the PAX Network show "It's A Miracle" as well the FOX show "Americas Most Wanted." This led him right back to CBS where he landed his first leading role opposite Chuck Norris in the CBS Movie of the Week "The President's Man: A Line in the Sand". He quickly followed his leading role and booked another dramatic supporting role on an NBC Movie of the Week titled "Homeland Security.'' Ali took a hiatus from his acting career while his race car driving talents had him traveling across the nation for Subaru of America and ESX Motorsports from 2004 thru 2009. After years of full-time racing, setting world records and winning national championships were scribed into the history books, Ali turned his full attention back to his acting career in late 2009.
His first role back from his racing "hiatus", Ali landed a supporting role in the feature film "He's Just Not That Into You", based on the best selling book. Ali plays the character of "Skip" alongside a star studded cast including Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connolly, Ben Affleck, Justin Long, Kevin Connolly & more! This movie is directed by Emmy nominated director Ken Kwapis.
Ali kept busy in 2009, he played the character of "Cyrus" alongside Academy Award winner Holly Hunter on the hit "TNT" television show, "Saving Grace”. He was cast as "Jonathan" in the comedic web series "Peas In A Pod". He was cast in a new web pilot/series titled "Marisa Rules/Girls Gone College" directed by "Ellen Sandler" (Writer/Producer of Everybody Loves Raymond). Ali also shot a national Mercedes-Benz commercial for the new 2008 "C-Class" titled "Projections" directed by Adam Berg and a "Blue Shield of California" insurance commercial. In November 2009, Ali filmed and worked alongside "The Most Interesting Man The World" in one of the extremely popular "Dos Equis" national beer commercials.
2010 brought Ali back his producing hat and created his first full length feature titled "Born To Race". A teen action film best described as "Fast and Furious meets Friday Night Lights"! Ali tapped into his rich auto racing history and brought dozens of sponsors to support him in this film including Subaru of America, NHRA, Pep Boys, Injen and more! Ali also had a supporting role in this film and played a character very close to home.. Himself! Born to Race was released in foreign markets in 2011 and was a hit on Netflix and in the spring of 2012 in North America. "Born to Race" surprised audiences and exceeded sales around the world thus, the second producing endeavor in Ali's auto based films titled "Born to Race FAST TRACK" was scripted and started filming in the fall of 2012.
Expanding his producing endeavors, Ali's "ESX Productions" created commercials for his special edition "Ali Afshar Signature Series Subaru and Aston Martin" vehicles, Subaru and Aston Martin promotional events, BFGoodrich Tires, Glendale Mitsubishi and a music video for "American Idol" finalist "Katelyn Epperly".
In June 2012, Ali booked roles in the highly anticipated "USA" network TV show "Political Animals" starring Sigourney Weaver and in the Oscar award winning Ben Affleck directed and starred film titled "Argo". Unfortunately a scheduling conflict didn't allow Ali to travel to the Middle East for filming and he had to pass on the great opportunity. In 2013 Ali got back in the saddle of a new Subaru Race Car, a 2013 Subaru BRZ and is attempting to set the world record with a 2000 horsepower, twin turbo, alcohol drinking, nitrous oxide breathing Subaru!
In summer of 2014, Ali won the IDRC Winter Nationals in Fontana, CA in his Worlds Fastest Street Subaru. Also, in the summer of 2014, the next generation of the limited "Ali Afshar Signature Series ESX STI" 2015 model year Subaru vehicles will be manufactured and become available thru participating Subaru dealerships across North America. These special 10th Anniversary editions are called the “Red Dragon” series.
In 2014, Ali partnered with Forrest Lucas of the Lucas Oil empire, including the Indianapolis Colts Super Bowl Stadium “Lucas Oil Stadium”, Lucas Cattle and MAV TV, to create a slate of feature films. The first film “The Dog Lover” was filmed in late summer 2014. And “American Wrestler: The Wizard”, a story best described as “Rocky meets The Karate,” a heartfelt coming of age story of perseverance in the face of adversity based on Ali and his family, filmed Summer 2015. Starring Oscar winner Jon Voight and William Fichtner. The third film “Running Wild” starring Sharon Stone and Tommy Flanagan and fourth film “Pray for Rain” starring Jane Seymour also filmed in 2015. These films gained the attention of legendary studio executives at the legendary Warner Bros. Studios , and Ali relocated his offices on to the lot of the famous studio in late 2015.
In 2016 Ali produced “Dirt”, a high action car racing film with heart starring Kevin Dillon and also produced “Ride”, starring Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, a true story of an abused and racist young boy who gets adopted by an African American man, overcomes their differences and becomes a BMX bicycle world champion.
In 2016 after 2 years of racing development, Ali got back into the driver's seat and set the world record for the Quickest and Fastest Subaru ever, while he blistered down the 1/4 mile at 7.22 seconds at 195mph. In 2017 and 2018, Ali with the help of Warner Bros, started releasing their slate of films and kept his productions rolling, including the films “American Fighter”, “Bennett’s War, “Roped”, “Lady Driver”, “The Stand at Paxton County” and “Wheels of Fortune” which were all released on Netflix!
In 2019 Ali produced the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) action film “Born A Champion” starring Dennis Quaid. In 2020, as the Covid pandemic started sweeping the county, Ali utilized his resources and went into producing on what may have been the first film in California during the Covid crisis, a small holiday film called “A California Christmas”, which ultimately became a huge hit on Netflix when it was released in 2020! It was the #1 film worldwide on Netflix for almost 2 weeks! In the fall of 2020 Ali also helped create and produce his first series “Casa Grande”
In 2021 Ali kept the holiday spirit alive as he produced a slate of 3 films for Netflix, including “That’s Amor”, “I Believe in Santa” and the sequel “A California Christmas: City Lights”.
Ali and ESX Productions have a slate of films scheduled for filming in 2022 under the new production banner Lila Lane Pictures! As the ESX family says, “The story has just begun”.
Ali spends his time living between Petaluma, CA and in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles and is splitting his time between Acting, Producing and Racing. Stay tuned in for the most updated information from Ali, by regularly visiting the following websites!
Instagram @aliafsharesx
