Reza Aslan

[Reza’s] literary talent is as essential to the effect of Zealot as are his scholarly and journalistic chops. A vivid, persuasive portrait. —Salon

In An American Martyr in Persia, Reza follows the story of a little-known American missionary from South Dakota named Howard Baskerville. In 1909, Baskerville died pursuing the same rights that Iranians still fight for today. Through his story, Reza reveals hidden truths about the world we live in today. In reality: our democracy isn’t as stable as we think it is, says Reza. To protect American democracy, we need to remember people around the world, and fight for their rights too.

Reza’s many books explore the history of religion and how we’ve come to understand the divine by assigning it human traits and emotions. His #1 New York Times bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth was translated into dozens of languages around the world and optioned for a film. His book, God: A Human History—another New York Times bestseller—was praised by the Seattle Times, which writes, “Driven by Aslan’s grace and curiosity, God helps us pan out from our troubled times.”

He served as the executive producer of CBS series United States of Al, which follows the unique friendship between a combat veteran and his Afghan interpreter. The show not only offers much-needed representation in Hollywood—it also helps break down stereotypes, confront fear-based narratives, and, perhaps most importantly, humanizes our fraught politics. Reza shows us how fear—organized and well-funded—perpetuates bigotry and victimizes us all. His inspiring talks reveal that it is only when we are united will we have the power to fight it.

Reza was also the consulting producer on the acclaimed HBO series The Leftovers, the host and executive producer of Rough Draft with Reza Aslan, the producer and host of the CNN show Believer, and the Emmy and Peabody Award-nominated Vox web series, The Secret Life of Muslims. He co-founded BoomGen Studios—the premiere entertainment brand for content from and about the Middle East, which has worked on project’s including Jon Stewart’s Rosewater, Netflix’s The Square, Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway, Discovery and TLC’s All American Muslim, and National Geographic’s Amreeka.

Reza’s degrees include a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University, a PhD in the Sociology of Religions from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. He’s a tenured Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California and serves on the board of trustees for the Chicago Theological Seminary and The Yale Humanist Community, which supports atheists, agnostics, and humanists at home and abroad.