Nastaran Dibai graduated from Communication Studies at Concordia University in Montreal in 1983. Upon graduating, she started working at the National Film Board of Canada, first as a camera assistant and later as a cinematographer. In 1985 she decided to pursue further studies and was granted a fellowship in cinematography at the American Film Institute (AFI).

After graduating from AFI she decided to change course from cinematography to writing for television. She and her husband, Jeffrey Hodes wrote 11 television series together including, LIVING SINGLE, THE NANNY, 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN, and ACCORDING TO JIM. They also developed several pilots for various American broadcast networks, including Funny in Farsi, which was adapted from the book of the same title by Firoozeh Dumas. That pilot was produced in 2010 for ABC and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Unfortunately, Jeffrey passed away in September 2011 due to complications from Leukemia. Since then Nastaran has been writing solo and has worked on HAPPILY DIVORCED starring Fran Drescher, RETIRED AT 35 starring George Segal and Jessica Walters, and most recently the new ABC sitcom MALIBU COUNTRY starring Reba McEntire, where she was elevated to Executive Producer/showrunner in October of 2012. Nastaran presently lives in Los Angeles and has a 17-year-old daughter, Katrina, and a beagle, named Buddy.