Azar Shiva was born in 1941, in the city of Tehran. She began her career working with Tehran Radio before later doing dubbing as a voice artist. Invited to work with Majid Mohseni, she shot her first film in 1962 titled "Song of the Village". In one decade, she acted in twenty one Iranian films, of the likes of "Sultan of Hearts" and "The Prostitute". Her career came to a close in 1972 with the rise of the Iranian Revolution, selling chewing gum as a form of protest at Tehran University for the way her film studio had commercialized the female body.