Tissa Hami
Stand-up comedian

Tissa Hami is one of the few female Muslim stand-up comics in the world. Her unique act and fresh perspective on life as an Iranian-American woman leave audiences in shock and awe. From Islamic fundamentalists to white liberals to good old-fashioned racists, no one is safe from Tissa's sharp wit.

Tissa, who performs in Islamic hijab, hopes her comedy will help break down stereotypes about Muslim women and foster understanding between Iranians and Americans.

Tissa grew up in a traditional Iranian family in a predominantly White suburb of Boston. She holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in international affairs from Ivy League universities. Her parents are thrilled that she is using her expensive education to pursue a career in comedy.

People who disapprove of her act will be taken hostage.

Visit Tissa's website at tissahami.com.

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Houman Mortazavi
Project Misplaced

The work of award-winning artist and designer Houman Mortazavi, Project Misplaced took shape as a series of newspaper advertisements, leaflets and posters published in the Iranian press in Los Angeles and posted throughout the city's Iranian neighborhoods in 2003.

Project Misplaced presents the public life of a fictitious first-generation Iranian immigrant, Soleyman (Simon) Ordoubadi. In search of a new identity and a foothold in U.S. society, Ordoubadi seeks fame, fortune and power by imitating the commercial self-promotion he sees all around him.

Project Misplaced is a work about cultural and social displacement. Uprooted from their native society, immigrants must redefine their existence in a new environment governed by unfamiliar rules, laws and standards. They are challenged to survive under incomprehensible social conditions that render the old measuring sticks useless. In a process that is sometimes tragic, sometimes comic, and always absurd, displacement leads to misplacement.

Mortazavi will present a slide show of his "ads" at this iranian.com event after their premier in Los Angeles on February 21 (See press release for LA show).

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Iraj Yamin Esfandiary
Political cartoonist

Iraj Yamin Esfandiary is one of the most provocative cartoonists of our time. His political cartoons not only display his sharp wit and concern for humanitarian values, but also leave no doubt about his gifted artistic abilities (See cartoons). At the iranian.com event Esfandiary will give a visual tour of his artistic career.

Esfandiary was born in Tehran in 1946, and raised in a middle class family. He graduated from Tehran University's School of Fine Arts with a masters degree in architecture in 1975. A year later he went to Los Angels and studied Urban Design at UCLA's School of Architecture and Urban Planning where he received a masters degree in 1980.

He started practicing architecture even before graduation in Iran and continues to do so today. Along with his major occupation, he developed free hand drawing skills learned from studying vernacular architecture and eventually developed it into drawing cartoons and caricatures.

His cartoons are published in Ahangar magazine, Nima bi-monthly review, Hamsayegan monthly, and posted on iranian.com. Top