Bio
Summer Bishil is an American actress best known for her role as Jasira in the 2007 film Towelhead, for which she received a nomination for Best Actress at the Independent Spirit Awards.
She is also known for her role as Azura in the 2010 fantasy film The Last Airbender.
Bishil was born in Pasadena, California. When she was three, her family moved to Saudi Arabia and, two years later, relocated to the small island Kingdom of Bahrain.
There Bishil and her brother attended The British School of Bahrain and the U.S. Department of Defense School, where she trained intensely on the school swim team with professional coaches. In 2003 the family returned to Southern California.
Immediately upon returning, Bishil began pursuing her dream of becoming an actress by enrolling in acting class.
A few years later, in 2006, she was selected after an arduous audition process to play the lead role in Alan Ball's Towelhead, the film adaptation of the novel by the same name.
In the years following, Bishil has appeared in many films, including Wayne Kramer's Crossing Over, alongside Harrison Ford and Ashley Judd, M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender and Mooz-lum, opposite Danny Glover and Evan Ross.
She has also made multiple appearances on television, guest starring in Days of Our Lives, Just for Kicks, Drake & Josh, Hannah Montana, Three Rivers and The Whole Truth, and she had a recurring role as Leila in 90210.
In 2013 she had a starring role as Samira Lashari, a young store clerk who emigrated from Pakistan as a child with her family and grew up American with a foot firmly stuck in traditional values, in the short-lived drama series Lucky 7.
Bishil currently lives in Southern California.