Maz Jobrani

The Iranian-American comedian and actor Maz Jobrani was born in Tehran and grew up in California. He studied political science and Italian at the University of California, Berkeley and was in a doctoral program at UCLA when he turned to acting and comedy. He belonged to the Axis of Evil comedy group, which appeared in a Comedy Central special, and his stand-up often deals with race and how Middle Easterners are misunderstood in America. His films include The Interpreter (2005), Friday After Next (2002), Descendants (2015), and Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero (2016), which he wrote with a friend. On television he was a regular on the CBS sitcom Superior Donuts and appeared in Better Off Ted, The West Wing as a Saudi prince, and Malcolm in the Middle. He co-hosts the podcast Minivan Men, voiced Ahmed Farahnakian in the audiobook of World War Z, and in 2025 the Carnegie Corporation of New York gave him a Great Immigrant Award.