[7][8] In 2022 Golbakhsh graduated from the University of Auckland with a PhD by creative practice in Media and Communications which focused on Iranian diasporic cinema.
[2] Golbakhsh's first book, The Girl from Revolution Road (2020) is a collection of ten personal essays that depict her life, identity and immigrant experience.
[9] A review by New Zealand news website Stuff described The Girl from Revolution Road as a "powerful book", and a "collection of perceptive and engaging essays which focus on the immigrant experience and the curious doubling effect which occurs when two cultures overlap".
[4][10] Angelique Kasmara for the Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books said the work "offers a fresh and vital perspective" and is an "excellent gift for every racist relative who won’t shut up".
[13][14][15] Golbakhsh contributed a chapter "Hyphenated Identity" to the anthology Ko Aotearoa Tātou: We Are New Zealand, edited by Michelle Elvy, Paula Morris and James Norcliffe.
[26] She has said she signed on to direct the show because she could see people she grew up with in the script, and appreciated that it was a comedy: "Normally stories that centre our community sit in the world of drama or tragedy".