Tehrangeles: The Story of Persian Los Angeles

The name that stuck

“Tehrangeles” is exactly what it sounds like: Tehran folded into Los Angeles. The nickname captures something real — not just that many Iranians live in LA, but that Iranian life continues there. You can spend a full day in parts of the city speaking only Farsi: breakfast at a Persian bakery, errands at an Iranian market, an afternoon among Persian bookstores, a concert by a Tehran-born pop star that same night. The word has appeared in documentaries, television, and academic writing about the diaspora — but mostly it lives the way nicknames should, in daily affectionate use.

How it happened

Iranian students and professionals had been coming to Southern California since the mid-twentieth century, drawn by universities like UCLA and USC. The transformative wave came after the 1979 revolution, when hundreds of thousands left Iran and Los Angeles — with its existing Iranian networks, its familiar sun-and-mountains geography, and its room to start over — became the destination of the exile generation. Entrepreneurs rebuilt businesses; doctors and engineers recredentialed; artists and musicians re-established an entire Persian-language entertainment industry in LA, beaming music and television back across the diaspora. Their children and grandchildren — bilingual, bicultural, deeply Angeleno — are today's Tehrangeles.

The map today

The symbolic heart is Westwood, where the city of Los Angeles officially designated a stretch of Westwood Boulevard as Persian Square in 2010 — bookstores, kabab houses, saffron ice cream, travel agencies with Farsi signage. From there the community spreads north over the hills into the San Fernando Valley — Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills — west into Brentwood and Santa Monica, through Beverly Hills (whose public schools famously enroll a large Persian community), up to Glendale, and south into Orange County, where Irvine anchors the second great hub. Every spring, Nowruz festivals fill parks from the Valley to OC; every winter, Yalda gathers families around pomegranates and Hafez.

The culture: a parallel world, generously shared

What makes Tehrangeles remarkable is completeness. It is not a street of restaurants; it is a functioning cultural ecosystem — Persian-language radio and television, poetry nights, classical santur recitals and stadium pop concerts, Persian schools on weekends, and food that ranges from street-corner bastani sandwiches to formal sofreh feasts. And it is famously welcoming: Nowruz in LA long ago stopped being an insider event. For a deeper cultural primer — taarof, family, holidays — see our Persian Dating Guide.

For singles: the paradox of the big community

Here is the strange thing about being single in the largest Iranian community outside Iran: the community is enormous, but your circle is still your circle. Family introductions reach the families your family knows. Events are wonderful but random. That is the gap LoveJan was built to close — a dating app made for this exact community, launched first in Los Angeles, where every member passes a live selfie check before they can appear or message anyone, photos can stay private until you match (a real comfort in a community where you might know a match’s cousin), and matching and messaging are free. Guides to dating Persian women and dating Persian men cover the culture side.

Frequently asked questions

What does Tehrangeles mean?

Tehran + Los Angeles — the affectionate nickname for LA’s Iranian community, the largest outside Iran, centered symbolically on Westwood’s Persian Square.

Where is Persian Square?

A stretch of Westwood Boulevard in Westwood, officially designated by the city of Los Angeles in 2010 and lined with Persian businesses.

How many Iranians live in LA?

Estimates vary by method, but counts across Greater LA and Southern California run well into the hundreds of thousands — with community estimates for the whole region sometimes near half a million.

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