Amaliya Panahova was born in 1945 in the city of Ganja. In 1966 she graduated in Drama and Film Acting from the Azerbaijan State Theatre Institute named after M. A. Aliyev. From 1964 until the end of her life she created more than five hundred roles in theatre and film, among them Tomiris, Natavan, Medea, Burla Khatun, Mahsati, Larisa, Ophelia and Linza. In 1968 and 1972 she was awarded the honorary titles of Azerbaijan Lenin Komsomol Prize laureate and Azerbaijan SSR State Prize laureate. For her great services to the development of theatre and film art, she was granted the honorary title of Honoured Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1974 and People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1985. In 1982 she was named Actress of the Year, and in 1998 she was listed among the six most popular actors of the Turkic world at the first Film Festival of the Turkic World. The actress also proved herself a capable director. Over 43 years of artistic career she staged 12 television and theatre productions, most of which were filmed and are now kept in television's Golden Fund. Among these are I. Afandiyev's "Mənim günahım", M. Murad's "Təkan", M. Gurbanov's "Sənsiz", O. Altunbay's "Tomris" and A. Mammadov's "Dəli Domrul". In 1992 she founded the Baku Municipal Theatre, bringing together middle-aged and older performers alongside young talented actors and creating every necessary condition for the development of their creative abilities. She was invited to teach at the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts, where she is a professor. Most of the students she taught went on to work alongside her at the Baku Municipal Theatre. Amaliya Panahova was a presidential scholarship recipient. From 2000 to 2005 she served as a member of the Milli Majlis (National Assembly) of the Republic of Azerbaijan, a member of its Standing Commission on Social Policy, chair of the CIS Interparliamentary Standing Commission on Culture, Information, Tourism and Sport, and chair of the Italy–Azerbaijan Interparliamentary Working Group. In 2013 she defended a doctoral dissertation on "Means of Embodying the Secondary Plane in an Actor's Creative Work on the Formation of an Image" and was awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Art Studies. On 17 June 2015, for her great services to the development of Azerbaijani culture, she was awarded the "Honorary Diploma of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan".
