Pegah Ahangarani was born in a family of artists. She appeared in her first film “The Singing Cat” at the age of six.

She shot to fame at the age of 15 with her brilliant performance in “Girl in Sneakers” for which she won three awards.

In her third film “Women’s Prison”, which was her mother’s directorial debut, she appeared in three different roles and won a Locarno Film Festival award.

While she was nominated for a Fajr International Film Festival Crystal Symorgh for “Homeland” in 2009, she won the prestigious award in 2013 for “Trapped”.

Ahangarani was arrested on 27 July 2009 in the wake of the turmoil after the 2009 presidential election, allegedly for her work in support of opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

She was later released but arrested again on 10 July 2011 prior to her planned trip to Germany to report on the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup for the Persian service of the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

She was released from Evin Prison two weeks later on the equivalent of $84,000 bail after expressions of "outrage among foreign governments and human rights organizations".