Growing up in Iran, Koorosh Ostowari would impersonate and embody the characters he saw on TV, creating costumes from items in his mom’s wardrobe. In those days, he played action heroes, superheroes — even jumping off the roof in an attempt to be like Superman — and Western film stars like John Wayne.

These days, the Sausalito performer is getting more personal with his new show, “Grandma’s Million-Dollar Scheme,” which reflects on his immigrant story, falling victim to an older woman’s scheme during his early days in real estate, his 10 years as a spiritual teacher at the Marin County Jail and some of the inmates he met while there. He performed a sold-out show at San Rafael’s Belrose in May.

Embodying around 20 characters in this “mostly true story,” he sprinkles in plenty of humor to tackle more serious issues of race, class, greed and what he saw as failings of the criminal justice system. The show runs at 8 p.m. Saturdays through Aug. 23 at the Marsh in San Francisco. Admission is $25 to $35 for general admission and $50 to $100 for reserved seating. More information and tickets are at themarsh.org.

“I get to share the story of what it’s like to be an Iranian immigrant, which is especially important during these times, and raise some awareness,” he said. “But there are so many stories about how we’re all interconnected.”

Ostowari, for whom art has been a therapeutic tool and creative outlet over the years, is one of the artists featured in a Marin Open Studios summer pop-up show at the Marin Art and Garden Center’s Studio gallery in Ross. Admission is free. The exhibit of more than 70 artists can be seen from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays through July 27. More information at maringarden.org/marin-open-studios.

Despite what happened to him earlier in his career, he still works in real estate in San Francisco.

Q Was art always part of your life? Or did it come later?

A We came to America in 1971, when I was 9 years old. I was with my mother, father and two sisters. It was a shocking experience because my father left, and my mother was left raising three kids all alone as a single mother. We were desperate to make it in America and had no child support. Mom went into the real estate business and started hustling and selling real estate in the ’70s when it was unheard of for a Persian woman in the Peninsula and San Francisco Bay Area to do so. In my teens, I started exploring ways to do self-therapy because I felt so depressed all the time, and I started drawing and then journaling heavily in my teens and then in my 20s. As I got involved in the real estate business, I became even more depressed because the whole pushing and trying to make money and all that was really hard on me.

When a lot of the real estate deals were not working out, or when I went broke because of one deal with the woman who’s a central character in this play, I went to Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre and spent years trying to gain insight into why I was not finding my place in the world. Spirit Rock played a big pivotal role in supporting me as a person of color. It’s where I finally realized I was stuck in a pattern of old stories around patriarchy and a lot of anger and ancestral misunderstanding and confusion. I found out that art is the way through this, which led to writing and then joining the Marsh theater.

I became certified as a Dharma leader from Spirit Rock and a somatic therapist and then decided to go work at the Marin County Jail as a spirituality teacher to give back. I started using art, theater and movement at the jail to help inmates learn how to play again. It was interesting to see people go back to that pure, innocent place. There’s a rewiring that started taking place. For me, as an immigrant, America gave me so much. It was a way to give back to people who a lot of times are incarcerated because of their family circumstances or their own traumas that I was lucky enough to overcome.

Q How did your work in the jail shape you?

A I was a paid spirituality teacher for one year, and then they ran out of funding, and I did the other nine years for free. The 4,000 or so inmates also were my teachers. They taught me how to have more humility and how to be a kinder person, and they gave me great stories that I could share on the stage. I tried to add some satire and humor to be able to make people laugh while they look at the situations of inequity and injustices in the prison system.

Q West Marin solo theater legend David Ford directed the show. How did he help with the piece?

A David’s daughter and my daughter went to the same school in West Marin. I got to learn about David’s work back in the early 2000s. One day, we’re in line at Good Earth, and I ask him what he does. He says, “I guide people to tell stories,” and I said, “I want to sign up.” (He’s performed other shows at the Marsh, such as 2023’s “Zombie Nation.”)

He can hold so many different stories from so many different people. And yet, when it comes to your work, he can give you guidance that is so clear, direct, humble and supportive. I’m indebted to David and Stephanie A. Weisman of the Marsh.

Q Do you approach art and writing similarly?

A Art started out as a therapeutic process, a tool to learn how to regulate myself in the early ’90s. It became a daily practice. Art and painting were really helpful to understand my place in the world. While that was going on, I started writing. I put out my book, “The Money Anxiety Cure,” because I was stressed about our economic uncertainty as immigrants. There was discrimination and prejudice, and I felt it was important to share about how I came to a place of learning how to manage dealing with money mindfully.

A lot of the show focuses on real estate. What was it like for an immigrant to buy an apartment building? What happens when tenants don’t pay? What happens when you’re like, I have to evict another immigrant? It’s the last thing you want to do, and then how to grow a real estate business. There are a lot of obstacles, because, in those days, it was a very white-dominated industry. And immigrants go through so much. I just want to have my own little impact on the world.