Shira Haas Becomes First Israeli Actor To Get Golden Globe Nod

Israeli actor Shira Haas has been nominated for Golden Globe awards for her role in the German-American drama Unorthodox. The Netflix series was inspired by Deborah Feldman's 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots. Shira Haas starred in the four-episode miniseries as Esther Shapiro, a young ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman who flees her arranged marriage and religious community to start a new life in Berlin, Germany.

The 25-year old actor was nominated for best actress in a limited series, anthology series, or motion picture made for television, as announced by Golden Globes on Wednesday. In fact, Haas was also nominated for an Emmy for the performance in the same series.

Fellow nominees of Shira Haas for the Golden Globe are:

• Cate Blanchett for Mrs. America
• Anya Taylor-Joy for The Queen’s Gambit
• Daisy Edgar-Jones for Normal People
• Nicole Kidman for The Undoing

As Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman are Oscar winners, it is an honour for the young actor to be placed among such distinguished actors in the nominations.

The actor responded to the nomination by uploading a video, thanking all her fans and supporters. She said in Hebrew, "I’m very, very excited. I wanted to say thank you to all the supporters and fans. I’m still taking it in.”

About Shira Haas

Born on May 11, 1995, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Shira Haas moved with her parents to a home in Hod HaSharon at the age of one, spending most of her early years there. A year later, she was diagnosed with kidney cancer, Nonetheless, she recovered after two years after a series of rigorous treatments.

At the age of 14, she began performing in plays at the Cameri Theater, such as Ghetto and Richard III. She made her television debut as the role of Ruchami Weiss in the drama series Shtisel in 2013. Shira Haas went on to make her first appearance in an international film in Natalie Portman's directorial debut, A Tale of Love and Darkness, released in 2015. She also appeared alongside Jessica Chastain in Niki Caro's The Zookeeper's Wife.

The Israeli actor gained national prominence for her roles in Israeli film and television. In fact, she won two Israeli Academy Awards, known as Ophir Awards, out of five nominations since 2014. Her international fame sky-rocketed with Unorthodox, for which she also received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and now a Golden Globe nomination. Moreover, she won the Tribeca Film Festival Award for Best International Actress in 2020 for her performance in the 2020 Israeli drama film Asia.