Islamic Worlds Festival

Laughter and personal observations from two brilliantly funny comedians, as they reflect on culture, families, stereotypes, and building bridges across boundaries:

Maysoon Zayid is a Palestinian-American actress, professional standup comedian, writer, and the co-founder/co-executive producer of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival. She is a recurring columnist at The Daily Beast and was a speaker at TEDWomen 2013. Maysoon has performed as a comedian in top New York clubs and has toured extensively at home and abroad. She was a headliner on both the Arabs Gone Wild Comedy Tour and The Muslims Are Coming Tour. She is the founder of Maysoon’s Kids, an education and wellness program for disabled and wounded refugee children. Maysoon, who has cerebral palsy, was a 2013 honoree of United Cerebral Palsy of NYC’s Women Who Care Awards.

Maz Jobrani is a founding member of The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, which first aired on Comedy Central, and has had two Showtime specials, most recently, I Come in Peace. Born in Tehran, Iranian-American Jobrani performs stand-up around the world, including the Middle East, where he performed in front of the King of Jordan. Most recently, he co-wrote, produced, and starred as the title character in the award-winning indie film comedy, Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero. He can next be seen (summer 2015) playing the role of Jafar (from Aladdin) in the Disney movie, The Descendants. With more than 50 guest star appearances, Jobrani can regularly be seen on television’s most popular shows, and has been featured on CNN, the BBC, and in The New York Times and Time Magazine. He has given two TED talks on breaking stereotypes through comedy. He is a regular panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me! He also has a book coming out, I’m Not a Terrorist but I’ve Played One on TV, published by Simon & Schuster, that’s expected to hit shelves in February 2015.