Dean Obeidallah
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Dean Obeidallah is an Arab/Italian-American comedian, who was born in Lodi, New Jersey. His father was born in Battir, Palestine and his mother's parents were born in Sicily. He recently received the “Spirit of Bill Hicks” award, named after the late great comedian Bill Hicks[1] for “thought provoking comedy” from the NY Underground Comedy Festival [2] and the Hicks’ family.[3] He is co-producing with comedy writer and novelist Max Brooks[4] a new show entitled "The Watch List" for Comedy Central's Internet channel. This is the first show ever produced by a major American entertainment company to showcase all Middle Eastern-American performers. The show will be released late 2006/early 2007. Dean is proud to be the co-founder of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, [5] which is the only Arab-American festival in the US dedicated exclusively to comedy. The highly acclaimed five day Festival has received national and international media coverage. It is held annually each fall in New York City and showcases Arab-American comics, actors, playwrights and filmmakers. Dean also is the co-creator of "Stand up for Peace" which he performs across the country with Jewish-American comedian Scott Blakeman. [6] “Stand Up for Peace” brings Arab, Muslim and Jews together through comedy in the hopes of fostering understanding. He has been featured on numerous national and international television programs including CNN, Comedy Central, PBS' Newshour with Jim Lehrer, ABC's 20/20, and Japan's NHK. He has also been featured in various publications and radio networks including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, BBC, Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, The Associated Press, Vanity Fair (Italian version)and Air America radio. In addition to performing at comedy clubs and colleges across the US, Dean has also performed comedy in the Middle East in Dubai, Beirut, Haifa and Ramallah.
