Nadia Bjorlin

Nadia Björlin
Bjorlin at the 16th Annual Movieguide Faith and Values Awards Gala in Beverly Hills, CA, February 12, 2008
Born	Nadia Alexandra Björlin (1980-08-02) August 2, 1980 Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, singer, model
Years active	1999–present
Spouse(s)	Grant Turnbull (m. 2015)
Website	www.nadia-bjorlin.com

Nadia Alexandra Bjorlin (born August 2, 1980) is an American actress, singer, and model.

Early life and education

Björlin was born on August 2, 1980 in Newport, Rhode Island. She is the second eldest child of Swedish composer and conductor Mats Ulf Stefan Björlin^[1] and Fary Bjorlin (née Dadashi), an Iranian interior designer.^[2][3][4]

Björlin is fluent in English, Swedish, and Persian and is also schooled in French, Italian, and Russian.^[5] She has an older brother Ulf Alexander Jr. and a younger brother Jean-Paul. She also has an older half-brother Kaj, and two older half-sisters Katja and Kamilla, from her mother's first marriage.^[5]

Bjorlin's family moved to her father's native country of Sweden while she was still an infant. She has described her childhood as "wonderful" with "loving parents and siblings to lean on", although Bjorlin recalls being "oblivious" to racial tensions going on in Sweden. Although she never attended school there, a few of her siblings did and she remembers them talking about how they "experienced some torment" from classmates due to being half-Iranian. Being born after the Revolution of Iran, Bjorlin says she "grew up in a time where Iranians were looked down upon in places of the world".^[6]

Bjorlin's family moved back and forth between the States and Sweden before she was 7 years old. They moved a few times because of her fathers work, living in Stockholm, Los Angeles and Palm Beach Florida. For her education, she attended the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, where she was honored for her excellence in theatre, voice, music and dance. Along with her brothers Ulf and Jean Paul, Bjorlin attended the Palm Beach County School of the Arts (now Dreyfoos School of the Arts) for her first 2 years of high school.^[7] During her time there, Bjorlin sang with the Palm Beach Opera and in 1996, she competed in a large international vocal competition in Verona, Italy, where she was part of the choir who won the gold medal. While she was a junior in high school her family moved, this time to New York City. Bjorlin was able to attend the Professional Children's School, where she studied alongside other famous actors and actresses, including Julia Stiles, Gaby Hoffman, and Macaulay Culkin. In May 1999, Bjorlin won first place in the Metro Lyric Opera Competition, taking place in NYC. When she graduated from high school, she decided to shift her focus from singing to acting.^[8]

Career

Bjorlin debuted in April 1999. Her first major role was as Chloe Lane^[9] on the well-known soap opera Days of Our Lives.^[1] Chloe was initially portrayed as a nerdy girl (nicknamed "Ghoul Girl" by her classmates) who wore big glasses and frumpy clothes. However she eventually received a new wardrobe and stopped wearing glasses and went on to become a major character and audience favorite. Björlin also sang on the show. In late 1999, she appeared as a go-go dancer in the music video for Ricky Martin's hit song Shake Your Bon-Bon.^[10]

Björlin left Days in June 2003 to concentrate on her singing career but returned later in December 2003. In September 2005, Bjorlin left Days of our Lives again and joined the cast of the UPN series Sex, Love & Secrets. The show was canceled by the network, but Björlin continued to make guest appearances on television series such as Jake in Progress and Out of Practice.

Since leaving Days, Björlin has appeared in the independent feature film If I Had Known I Was a Genius, starring Markus Redmond, Whoopi Goldberg, Sharon Stone, and Tara Reid. The film was screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Bjorlin was also cast as the female lead of the Chicago Pictures' feature film, Redline. The film starred Eddie Griffin and Nathan Phillips, and was released in theaters on April 13, 2007.

Bjorlin returned to Days of Our Lives as Chloe on November 29, 2007, and left the show again in September 2011 to pursue acting in films.

Since 2009, Bjorlin has starred as lesbian author Lara in the web series Venice: The Series.

In 2010, Bjorlin had a small role in NCIS as a suburban housewife wearing a bikini during a door-to-door canvasing by one of the NCIS investigators. That same year she guest starred on the hit CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men as Evelyn Harper's (Holland Taylor) lesbian lover, Jill.

In 2011, Bjorlin was one of the stars of the reality television series Dirty Soap^[11] which gave viewers a behind-the-scenes view of Nadia's departure from Days of Our Lives, and afterward, including a bit of insight into the tenuous relationship between Nadia's live-in boyfriend and her mother who doesn't like him because she believes that he doesn't treat her well enough.

Nadia Bjorlin returned to her role on Days of Our Lives as Chloe on January 4, 2013. It has been stated that she will work alongside her returning TV mom Nancy Wesley, played by Patrika Darbo again. Bjorlin returned for a two episode stint on August 3, and August 4, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the daytime serial.

Bjorlin guest starred on 2 Broke Girls as the owner of a cat found by the girls in an episode aired on October 7, 2013.

Personal life

Bjorlin dated Los Angeles radio personality Frank Kramer around 2000 or 2001; Kramer would often refer to her on his show as "Tuesday". She also dated Bruce Willis around 2001-2002. Bjorlin was once engaged to subprime lending tycoon Daniel Sadek, who produced her film Redline. Bjorlin had been in a relationship with actor Brandon Beemer for seven years till 2013.^[12] Bjorlin became engaged to boyfriend Grant Turnbull in August 2014.^[13] Bjorlin married Turnball on May 15, 2015 in Palm Springs.^[12] In November 2015, Bjorlin announced that she and Turnbull are expecting their first child, a boy, in May 2016.^[14]

Bjorlin's father Ulf Bjorlin died in 1993 at age 60 due to Leukemia.^[15] Since then, Bjorlin has been involved in several charities and fundraisers to help raise awareness and money for research on this type of cancer. She has even formed her own team; Nadia's Cancer Crusaders to help find a cure for this disease. On June 15, 2013, Bjorlin along with her then-boyfriend Brandon Beemer participated in and hosted the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's annual Light the Night walk at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California with the goal of raising $500,000 for Leukemia research and to help people fight the disease. On October 5, 2013, Björlin again participated in the Light the Night at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood.^[16]

Apart from singing and acting, Bjorlin is also a musician and plays the flute, harp, guitar, and piano.^[2] She also has a couple of pet birds, and a puppy named Tiger.^[17] Bjorlin is also good friends with her former Days of Our Lives co-star Farah Fath.^[18]

Filmography

See also

• Iranian American

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nadia Bjorlin.

• Official website
• Nadia Bjorlin at the Internet Movie Database
• Nadia Bjorlin on Twitter