Lavin Exclusive Speaker
Negin Farsad is at the forefront of social justice comedy—a field that she insists totally exists (or should). A TED Senior Fellow and author of How to Make White People Laugh, Farsad is one of few Iranian-American Muslim female filmmakers to use humor—ridiculous humor—to bridge the racial, religious, social, and immigrant gap. The Wall Street Journal calls her work “smart, funny, and fascinating.”
In her feature film, The Muslims Are Coming!, Negin Farsad took a group of Muslim-American comedians on the road in Middle America to do shows, meet the locals, and counter Islamophobia through jokes. The film features Jon Stewart, Lewis Black, Janeane Garofalo, David Cross, and Rachel Maddow, to name a few, and won a humanitarian award from the Arab-American Institute. Farsad’s first book, How to Make White People Laugh, was called “frank & hilarious” by Salon, while the Austin Chronicle calls her a “master humorist who is equal parts academic and amusing.” The hilarious memoir-comedy-manifesto was nominated for a Thurber Prize for Humor (published by Grand Central/Hachette). She continues some of the themes in her book on the podcast Fake the Nation, a political comedy roundtable that is a Vulture critic’s pick and was nominated for a Webby Award, and in her column for The Progressive —an online magazine championing grassroots politics, human rights, economic justice, and a reinvigorated democracy, among other things. Farsad is a regular panelist for NPR’s weekly current events program Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and Neil deGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk.
For Farsad, the social justice thing didn’t come out of the blue. She has a dual Masters in African American Studies and Public Policy from Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs, and used to work as a policy advisor for the city of New York, before leaving it behind for a strange life in the arts. Farsad was named one of the 50 Funniest Women by Huffington Post and one of the 10 Best Feminist Comedians by Paste Magazine. She has appeared on Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show, A&E’s Black & White, and various programs such as CNN and MSNBC. Farsad has also written and developed series for MTV, PBS, and Nickelodeon. She wrote, directed, and starred in the 2016 feature release 3rd Street Blackout—a rom-com set in the blackout after Hurricane Sandy and featuring Ed Weeks from The Mindy Project, Janeane Garofalo, and John Hodgman. She also wrote, directed, and produced Nerdcore Rising, a comedy about nerdcore hip-hop that WIRED called “honest and heartfelt,” and which has been an official selection of festivals worldwide, earning Best Film, Best Director, and Audience Favorite awards.
As a standup comedian, Farsad has performed far and wide, from Town Hall on Broadway to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Her other shows include The Dirty Immigrant Collective, Bootleg Islam, and The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: a Romantic Comedy. Queen Rania of Jordan commissioned Farsad to make a video as part of a series combating Muslim stereotypes—a series that won the first ever YouTube Visionary Award.