Reza Naji is an Iranian actor and an iconic figure of Iranian cinema.Naji started his career in theater when he was a teenager. While serving in the Iranian army, he continued to perform in different roles. His first role in a film goes back to 1997 in Children of Heaven, which proved to be a breakthrough. For playing the role of Ali's father, director Majid Majidi was seeking an actor with an Azeri accent, and Naji was carefully selected from a group of 2,500 actors tested for the role.