Mustafa Haidari

Mustafa Haidari was born in a supportive and progressive family in the heart of Kabul Afghanistan. His father an engineer and his mother was a school teacher in Kabul. He is a multilingual actor and stuntman currently based in Los Angeles California.

Mustafa loves art and likes be involved in the entertainment industry. His passion for acting sparked at a young age of seven or eight years old when he attended a film set for the first time in Kabul where his father's cousin was an actor filming his scenes for a movie.

Soon after finishing his primary and higher education in Kabul, he enrolled himself at the faculty of Fine Arts at Kabul University and majored in arts. While he was studing acting at the faculty of Fine Arts, he found a work opportunity and got involved with other artists at the (Foundation for Culture and Civil Society) a non-governmental organization in Kabul. He attended private acting classes and acting workshops held by international artists at the culltural foundation. In 2005, Ariane Mnouchkine a world-renowned French theater director and the founder of Theatre du Soleil had traveled to Kabul with 40 other French actors from Theatre du Soleil for an acting workshop to train Afghan stage actors. Mustafa was very fortunate to be trained by Ariane Mnouchkine during her two months long workshop in Kabul.

Mustafa landed his first acting role on a stage play called "I am not the second gender" and he was also the producer. It was a play centered on some of the bad customs, and traditions that undermine equality for women in the Afghan society.

He then moved on and played his next on stage role as a messenger in an Afghan-adopted production of Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" comedy in Kabul. The play was directed by Corinne Jaber in (2005) in Kabul. As part of Kabul Theatre Summer 2005 festival and the 2nd Afghan National Theatre Forum, the play ran for five nights and it was one of the best productions.

The play was adopted in to Dari language and the cast were all Afghans. It had multiple runs in Kabul and was very well received by the Afghans and non-Afghans alike.

While Mustafa Haidari was in Kabul, he assisted Afghan local and international artists with their projects including Lida Abdul an Afghan-German artist, Corinne Jaber, the director of (Shakespeare in Kabul and Sisters), Kate Dowd, the casting director of The Kite Runner movie, and Philipe Gautier, the producer of Kabuli Kid (L'Enfant de Kaboul) feature film. Mustafa played an important role in many projects as a cultural and language consultant/ liaison between the Afghan local artists and the international productions such as The Kite Runner, Shakespeare in Kabul, Sœurs, and Kabuli Kid.

In 2006, Mustafa was hired as an Afghan casting associate for The Kite Runner feature film in Kabul. The Kite Runner novel is written by a well-known Afghan-American and UNHCR goodwill ambassador Khalid Hosseini in (2003). The Kite Runner was New York Time's bestselling novel for two consecutive years in (2005) with millions of copies translated in many different languages and sold worldwide.

It was the first opportunity for Mustafa to get deeply involved in the movie industry that he had always admired. He met the casting director of The Kite Runner, Kate Dowd in 2006 in Kabul and assisted her with casting of the Afghan characters for the movie. After three months of casting process and completion of the cast members in Kabul, Mustafa was asked to assist the production particularly the Art, Wardrobe and Props departments with purchase of authentic Afghan merchandize. Furthermore, his assistance did not end in Kabul but his demeanor and strong character carried over to China where he worked as a team leader and liaison between the Afghan cast and the production. While he was in China, his vast knowledge of the Afghan culture in respect to film and cinema was needed to improve authenticity of the project. On the filming set, Mustafa worked as an interpreter, dialect coach, Afghan cultural and technical consultant, while he was a cast member in the movie as well. Mustafa also worked as a producer's assistant for the Afghan-French joint feature film (L'Enfant de Kaboul) or Kabuli Kid directed by Barmak Akram and assisted the line producer Philippe Guatier. In addition, he assisted the Afghan-French cast members and the production team as a Pashto, Dari interpreter while he was a cast member as a Journalist.

Mustafa Haidari moved to Los Angeles California in (2008) to peruse his American dream as an actor in Hollywood. He attended Santa Monica College and achieved his associate degree in computer science while continued his acting training with private instructors in Los Angeles.

Mustafa loves learning new languages, and likes to communicate with people in their native languages. Besides his fluency in English, he speaks Pashto, Dari, and Farsi languages. He also speaks Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and Turkish conversationally. Aside from acting on-screening, voice over and stunts, Mustafa also helps productions as an Afghan language and cultural consultant. He worked as a cultural consultant and Pashto dialect coach on multiple episodes of NCIS Los Angeles and coached LL Cool J, Chris O'donnell, and few other actors with Afghan languages. Some of Mustafa Haidari's pre/post production credits as an Afghan cultural advisor, script translator, and Pashto/Dari dialect coach include: Fighting Season, Flash Forward, Three Rivers, Day One, NCIS Los Angeles, Man Down and The Kite Runner on broadway.

Mustafa has also lent his voice for the Dari version of Rosetta Stone, a popular language learning program widely used around the globe. Mustafa’s favorite hobby is photography and he enjoys being outdoor and taking pictures of the nature. Mustafa is a computer savvy and he works as a web developer on his spare time which adds to his professional skills.