A play based on the popular novel, “The Kite Runner,” is now on Broadway.

For one of the actors, the storyline of a family fleeing Afghanistan for safety in the United States, mirrors her own life.

"It has been a return to oneself," says Azita Ghanizada, whose family fled Afghanistan after the 1979 invasion by the Soviet Union.

Ghanizada was a small child when her family escaped with little more than the clothes on their backs and settled as refugees in Virginia.

"My dad worked with (the) U.S. government, so we received political asylum," says Ghanizada. "We had friends at the Pentagon that helped get us out when the Soviets were invading. I was a baby. We showed up with one suitcase and some bags."

“The Kite Runner” is Ghanizada's Broadway debut. She most recently appeared as the character Ariana on the CBS comedy “United States of Al.”