Bahar Soomekh was born on March 30, 1975, in Tehran, Iran, to a Persian-Jewish family. Her parents, Manijeh and Hamid Soomekh, owned a women's high fashion company, and she has a sister named Saba Soomekh. In 1979, the family relocated to Los Angeles to escape the Iranian revolution.
Bahar attended Sinai Akiba Academy, a yeshiva, and later Beverly Hills High School, where she was a member of the school orchestra, playing the violin. She went on to major in environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Before pursuing a full-time acting career, Bahar worked a corporate job and took acting classes at night. She began her acting career at the age of 27, guest-starring in several television shows, including Without a Trace, 24, and JAG.
Bahar's breakthrough role came when she played Dorri, an Iranian-American woman, in the Academy Award-winning film Crash (2004). The entire cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture. She also appeared in the director's cut of the Academy Award-winning film Syriana (2005),playing the role of Yassi.
Bahar's other notable roles include playing Davian's translator in Mission: Impossible III (2006),a victim, Dr. Lynn Denlon, in the horror film Saw III (2006),and Margo on the television series Day Break (2006).
In recent years, Bahar has taken on lead roles in several projects. She played Hollis on the television series The Oaks (2008),which is set to premiere in the fall of 2008.
