Shira Haas

Haas was born in Tel Aviv, Israel.[1] At the age of two, she was diagnosed with kidney cancer, and the chemotherapy she underwent stunted her growth.[3] She later undertook detailed physical preparation for the role of Vika in the 2020 film Asia, whose degenerative neurological illness Haas identified as ALS. She explained: "Though it is never spelled out in the movie, she has ALS [Lou Gehrig's disease]. We consulted with a doctor throughout."[3]

Haas became known internationally after the Israeli series Shtisel was picked up by Netflix.[2] She played Ruchama Weiss, a devout young ultra-Orthodox woman.[4][5] In the third season, Ruchama is the young wife of Hanina Tonik, a member of the Shtisel clan who devotes his life to kollel study.[5]

In 2020, Haas starred in Netflix's four-part limited series Unorthodox as Esther Shapiro, known as Esty, a 19-year-old newly married woman who leaves her Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for a new secular life in Berlin. Released on March 26, the series was loosely adapted from Deborah Feldman's 2012 memoir Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots.[4] A prominent scene shows Esty walking fully dressed into a lake, removing her wig in the water, looking toward the sky, and taking a deep breath.[6] In the documentary Making Unorthodox, Haas described the story as being about "the right to have your own voice." The Jewish Review of Books connected that theme to Esty's audition scene, in which she moves from a Schubert lied to the Hasidic wedding song "Mi ban si'ach."[4]

Also in 2020, Haas portrayed Vika in director Ruthy Pribar's film Asia, playing a young woman whose relationship with her mother anchors the story as her neurological illness worsens.[3] Haas won Best Actress at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival and the Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actress.[3][7] Asia received nine Ophir Awards, eight of which went to women, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Alena Yiv, and Best Supporting Actress for Haas.[3]

Earlier in her film career, Haas appeared alongside Efrat Dor in the 2017 historical drama The Zookeeper's Wife, directed by Niki Caro.[8][9] The film dramatizes Antonina and Jan Żabiński's efforts to help Jews and work with the Resistance after Germany invaded Poland in 1939.[9] A few days before Holocaust Remembrance Day, Haas attended a special screening near Tel Aviv co-sponsored by Yad Vashem's Visual Center and United King Films. Attendees included Holocaust survivors and Moshe Tirosh, who had been hidden by the Żabińskis at the Warsaw Zoo during World War II.[8]

For Unorthodox, Haas received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in 2020.[1] The Jerusalem Post later described her as the first Israeli nominated for an Emmy.[2]

Haas received the Golden Nymph Jury Prize at the 63rd Monte Carlo International Television Festival for her role in the Israeli series Night Therapy.[7] In her recorded acceptance message, she said, "Night Therapy is a series about healing, about grief, about love," and called the role personally meaningful.[7]

Haas was cast as the Marvel character Sabra, known in the comics as Ruth Bat-Seraph, in Captain America: Brave New World.[1] She appeared alongside Harrison Ford and Anthony Mackie, and the film premiered in Los Angeles in February 2025.[7][10] In January 2024, she was also announced for her planned West End stage debut in the musical Opening Night at London's Gielgud Theatre. The production has a score by Rufus Wainwright and a book by van Hove and is based on John Cassavetes's 1977 film about an actress traumatized after witnessing a fan's death.[2]

Haas was additionally slated to portray Golda Meir—Israel's first and only female prime minister—in an American television adaptation of Francine Klagsbrun's biography Lioness.[11]

Haas's roles in Shtisel and Unorthodox brought her international recognition, while her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations extended her profile on the international awards circuit.[1][2] Her work in Asia added major honors at the Tribeca Film Festival and Israel's Ophir Awards, followed by the Golden Nymph Jury Prize for Night Therapy.[3][7]

A 2020 Jewish Review of Books assessment said that Haas "seems to be carving out a niche for herself in ultra-Orthodox roles" through Shtisel and Unorthodox.[4] Her performances in Asia and Captain America: Brave New World, however, illustrate work beyond that particular type of character.[3][10]

Haas's casting as Sabra in Captain America: Brave New World generated political backlash. At the film's Los Angeles premiere in February 2025, pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside with signs reading "Sabra has got to go" and "Disney supports genocide."[10] The comics version of Sabra, also known as Ruth Bat-Seraph, first appeared in the early 1980s and was portrayed as a mutant Mossad agent.[1][10]

After online criticism of the casting, Marvel said in 2022 that the filmmakers were taking a "new approach" to the character.[1] By February 2025, producer Nate Moore said that the film's Ruth Bat-Seraph was "not Mossad"; although portrayed as a first-generation Israeli, she instead works within the United States government.[10]