[1] He was discovered as an actor by acclaimed Iranian New Wave film director, Abbas Kiarostami.

While Ershadi was sitting in his car in traffic in Tehran he was approached by Kiarostami and eventually chosen to play the leading role in the film, Taste of Cherry.

[1] In 2007 he was cast in The Kite Runner, a film about two young boys growing up in Afghanistan.

[2] The short story Seeing Ershadi by Nicole Krauss was published in The New Yorker on 5 March 2018.

It is about a ballet dancer who watches a film featuring Ershadi and then becomes obsessed with his face.