The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival

The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival was created to showcase the talents of Arab-American actors, comics, playwrights and filmmakers. Now celebrating its second year due to the overwhelming positive response and sold out performances in year one, they hope that it will become an annual tradition. It is the only festival in the country that celebrates the comedy of Arab-Americans!

Many of the participants of last year’s Festival have already benefited from the increased visibly they received. The plays Browntown and Live! With Pascal & Chantal had their world premiers at the Festival and went on to great acclaim at this year’s New York International Fringe Festival. Actor Omar Metwally was recently nominated for a Tony Award for his role in the Broadway play Sixteen Wounded; actor Piter Fattouche co-starred in the TNT mini-series The Grid; and comic Helen Maalik was seen regularly this summer in the new Oxygen Network television program Nice Package. In addition, since January, Festival co-founders Maysoon Zayid and Dean Obeidallah have been co-hosting a new radio show in NYC on WBAI radio 99.5FM that focuses on Arab-American artists.