Maz Jobrani (born Maziyar Jobrani) is an Iranian-American stand-up comedian, actor, author, and podcast host. He is known for using comedy to address the experiences of Middle Eastern Americans in the U.S.
The comedian is a member of the political nonprofit The Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA). He is a 2008 recipient of World Academy of Arts, Literature and Media (WAALM) Persian Lioness Award in the arts.
Jobrani released his latest comedy special, Pandemic Warrior, in 2021. Now, the comedian is developing his own original animated sitcom.
Maz Jobrani: comedian and actor
Jobrani is a founding member of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. The group, comprised of four Middle Eastern comedians, was active from 2005 to 2011. The Axis of Evil tour used humor to ease post 9/11 tensions. In 2007 the group appeared on their own Comedy Central special.
In 1999 Jobrani made his television debut as a security guard in Chicago Hope. He later appeared in the 2002 comedy film Friday After Next and the 2002 thriller Dragonfly. In 2007 the comedian starred in the ABC comedy series The Knights of Prosperity. Two years later Jobrani took a role on ABC’s sitcom Better off Ted. The comedian has also made appearances on popular shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Last Man Standing, and Shameless.
Jobrani co-wrote, co-produced, and played the titular role in the 2014 independent comedy Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero. He co-starred in the political thriller The Interpreter and in Disney’s fantasy musical Descendants as Jafar the following year. In 2017 Jobrani played Fawz, the father of the main character on the CBS sitcom Superior Donuts. He starred as Uncle Saman in Iranian-American actress and comedian Tara Grammy’s comedic romcom A Simple Wedding in 2018.
In 2017 Jobrani directed his own Netflix comedy special Immigrant. The comedian also performed three solo Showtime specials including Brown and Friendly (2009) and I Come in Peace (2013). Jobrani’s latest comedy special Pandemic Warrior is available to stream on PeacockTV.
The comedian hosts his own podcast, Back to School with Maz Jobrani with the All Things Comedy Network. Jobrani also wrote the book I’m Not a Terrorist, But I’ve Played One On TV: Memoirs of a Middle Eastern Funny Man. He published the memoir with Simon & Schuster in 2015.
Maz Jobrani started acting in the 8th grade
Jobrani was born in Tehran, Iran in 1973. He then fled the country’s revolution with his family and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area at age six. Jobrani has two younger brothers and a sister.
In eighth grade, Jobrani played the lead in his school’s production of the comedic musical Li’l Abner. The young actor then continued to pursue theater throughout high school. He went on to earn his B.A. in Political Science and Italian at UC Berkeley. Jobrani was studying in a UCLA Ph.D. program when he visited the school’s theater program and decided to pursue comedy.
In 2010, the comedian’s sister, producer and filmmaker Mariam Jobrani, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Jobrani documented her journey over the following six years as executive producer of the film Everything Must Change. Sadly, Mariam passed away after the completion of post-production in 2017.
“When you lose someone you love, someone who lived life to the fullest, the question is, ‘How do we keep her alive?’ It’s through keeping her name alive,” Jobrani told SurvivorNet.
Jobrani has worked with the Persian American Cancer Institute and the International Society for Children with Cancer.
He is married to Indian-American attorney, Preetha Jobrani, with whom he has two children.
Maz Jobrani to develop original series
Now Jobrani is collaborating with Grom Social Enterprises’ Curiosity Ink Media to develop an original animated sitcom. The show, Laugh on Lorb (working title) is inspired by Jobrani’s experiences growing up in the U.S. as an Iranian immigrant.
Jobrani is working with producer and director Dustin Ellis to develop the story, writing, and direction of the fledgling series. Curiosity Ink Media will produce, as well as with Mainstay Entertainment.
The sitcom follows an Iranian-American teenager and aspiring comic. The teen gets chosen to represent Oprah Winfrey at a high school event. Due to this, a group of emotionless aliens called the Lorbs to mistake the teenager as Oprah. The aliens kidnap him right off the stage to bring to their princess. In order to save the Lorbs from ruin, the teen accepts a mission to “channel his inner Oprah” and philosophy of life as an Iranian immigrant.
“This project came to me from an old friend, Dustin Ellis…Once [Ellis and I] got together and started writing we took from our immigrant experiences to create a show where the child of immigrants will be the hero,” Jobrani said in an email. “We hope to tell stories with heart that will also be funny, while pulling from our own families. We all know the US could use more stories told from the perspective of immigrants and we hope to help fill that void.”
“I’m really excited to be working with Curiosity Ink Media and Dustin Ellis to create a fictional planet where a teenage comedian becomes a savior and his immigrant family pester him to be back home on Earth in time for dinner,” Jobrani told Animation Magazine. “What could go wrong?”
