Abigail Marateck directed Browntown at the 2003 Festival and Layla's Sahra in 2004. Among her New York credits are nude in 3 acts (Access Theater), Fit For Feet by Jordan Harrison (Vital Theater), Cabin 12 by John Bishop (Brooklyn College), Silence by Moira Buffini (Brooklyn College), and Browntown by Sam Younis (Lucille Lortel). She assistant directed on Disney's The Lion King this past year and has also worked with Tina Landau.  

A native to Saudi Arabia, Kamel received her BFA in Animation and Communication design from Parsons School of Design, in 2004. She also received a diploma in Directing from the New York Film Acadmey, in 2005. In the summer of 2006, Kamel had the opportunity to work as the director's (Peter Berg) personal assistant on his latest film The Kingdom. She is currently enrolled in the full time program in acting at the William Esper Studio studying with Mr.Esper. 

Ahmed Ahmed (Comedian) Egyptian-born, California-raised, was a guest on ABC's The View, Comedy Central, was the subject of a front-page Wall Street Journal article, and appeared in Newsweek. In addition, Ahmed has guest starred in Roseanne, Tracy Takes On, and MTV's Punk'd, and has had roles in numerous movies, including Executive Decision. Ahmed performs regularly at L.A.'s world-famous Comedy Store, and headlines nationally. 

Ahmed Amer grew up in Cairo watching Egyptian films and acquired an obsession with cinema. To pursue his childhood dream and become a film writer and director, he moved to New York City in 2003 and started making films. Ahmed wrote and directed two short films and is working on a feature length script to be shot in Cairo. He also works in editing and production of documentary films in New York. His last short film "A Good Family" was shown in festivals in Egypt and the US.  

Ahmed Ibrahim moved to New York after studying law in Cairo. His passion is to relate Arab experiences through the medium of film. He wrote and directed his first film, "Tayer" which screened in NY, and "Reel World" film festival, Canada, 2005. He is working on 2 feature film scripts. 

Arthur is very excited to be a part of this years New York Arab American Comedy Festival. Arthur is a graduate of Rutgers University Professional Actors Training Program where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts. Since graduation, Arthur has toured the U.S. and abroad and has performed in several regional theaters. He can currently be seen in the independent feature Flatmates starring as the hooker with the heart of gold.  

Betty Shamieh is a Palestinian-American writer and actor. Her play Roar was presented by the New Group in March 2004. Her essay "Lives I Could Not Have Led" was published in the July/August 2003 issue of American Theater magazine. She was awarded the New Dramatists Van Lier Fellowship. A graduate of Harvard University and Yale School of Drama, Betty is currently the professor of screenwriting at Marymount Manhattan College. 

Brook Wilensky-Lanford is currently getting her M.F.A. in Nonfiction Writing at Columbia University. A writer and Arabic language student, she is thrilled to be collaborating with Nisaa' and the NAACF. 

Celli Pitt is excited to be a part of this new work/adventure.  Celli received her B.A in Theatre/Pre-Med from Spelman College and her M.F.A. in Acting from Brandeis University.  Celli's directing credits include IBO: The Water Brought Us, The Water Will Take Us Away, and Black Tale. Celli has also taught Acting and Vocal/Phyical Connection at Brandeis University.  Thanks NYAACF for this opportunity and to my family for their everflowing support! 

DJ Jungle is often heard spinning his turntables at Babel, releasing his special blend of Arabic, Dance, Trance, World and Hip Hop sauce guaranteed to get you up and slobbering like a deranged dance monkey in no time. New York City, get ready for the pulsing jungle beats of DJ Jungle. Are you ready?  

Dahlia Badawi is an American-born Egyptian, raised in Montreal, Canada. She received her B.A from Boston College, and has just recently completed the two-year program at the William Esper Studio. She has just appeared in a showcase project, Love's Doorstep. Favorite roles include the one-act play Beirut. Film credits include Zoolander, Ticker and Lost. Dahlia is acting in Next Year In Jerusalem in the 2005 Festival. 

Dave Merheje shares his unique vision and life experiences from the stage, which is told in an improvisational, wild story style, he has an uncanny ability to take you on a wild comedic journey that leaves you bursting with laughter. Yet he is not afraid to share his views on having a Middle Eastern background and how it has affected his life. He gives you an arithmetic interpretation of urbanized life. 

Versatile, passionate, and very talented, Hannan is extremely excited to be part of this years New York Arab-American Comedy Festival. Currently, she is understudy with Terry Knickerbocker at The William Esper Studio.  

Hany Kamal has had principal and prominent roles in several films including The Siege with Denzel Washington, Too Tired To Die with Mira Sorvino, West Bank Brooklyn,�The Opponent, and David & Layla among others.�He has worked extensively in commercials and voiceovers. He speaks, reads, and writes fluent Arabic, Russian, and English and has a working knowledge of French and Italian. He has worked on Wall Street, at the United Nations, as a university professor and film producer. His work in the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival will be his stage debut. 

Jana Zenadeen is a Lebanese-American actress and writer. She was last seen in Francoise Changes Her Mind at the "Moral & Values Festival". Theatre credits include; "Chantal" in Live! With Pascale & Chantal! at the New York International Fringe Festival and the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, "Mona" (ensemble) in Rite of Return at The Theatre for the New City, and "Woman" in Prometheus at the Studio Theatre. 

Twelve years ago John Kawie turned his back on 17 years in the aerospace industry, sold his company and moved to New York City to pursue his dream of doing stand-up. He then worked in concert with some pretty respectable names - like Dennis Miller and Howie Mandel. Being the only Arab-American comic, at the time, he brought a unique perspective to the Middle East specifically, and to the world in general. 

NOTE FROM WEB PRODUCTION TEAM TO PR TEAM: WHY EVERY YEAR DO WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH SOME WHITE DUDE WHO EITHER DOESN'T HAVE A BIO, OR CAN'T SEND IN A HEADSHOT? WHY IS THIS WHITE GUY HERE? DON'T WHITE GUYS KNOW THAT THEY ONLY GET IN THE FESTIVAL DOOR BECAUSE WE'RE LEGALLY NOT ALLOWED TO ASK IF THEY'RE ARABS? IS HE ASHAMED OF BEING SEEN WORKING WITH US, THIS CURSED KAFFIR? PLEASE HAVE DEAN CONTACT US TO EXPLAIN WHAT'S GOING ON. THANKS! 

Recent Broadway credits include: Dinner At Eight at the Lincoln Center. Off-Broadway credits include: Guantanamo, The Culture Project; Roar, The New Group; Homebody/Kabul, NYTW Regional; Omnium-Gatherum Act, Seattle; Fete De La Nuis, Berkeley Rep.; Culture Clash, Arena Stage. Film & TV credits include: David and Layla and Law and Order-SVU. 

Leila Gazale's television and film credits include "Niloo Razi" in Law & Order, and "Layla" in Why Do You Hate Me? Theater includes "Pascale" in Live! With Pascale and Chantal!;"AnneMarie" in Details of Silence, and "Ann" in Gray, Wrinkled and Sagging. Leila studies at the William Esper Studio. 

Maha Chehlaoui most recently performed in the Barrow Street Theater's production of Girl Blog from Iraq: Baghdad Burning (dir. Kim Kefgen) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (nom. Best Ensemble). Directing credits include: Sajjil, Nibras (Best Ensemble, NYC Fringefest 2002) and Live! With Pascal and Chantal, P&C Productions. 

Marie-Thérèse Abou-Daoud was born in NYC to Palestinian immigrants hailing from Lebanon and Egypt. She studied Theatre and English at Rutgers University as well as acting at HB Studio and The New School. Earlier this year, she gave a bilingual performance in Republic of Iqra at Theater for the New City. She also wrote and performed in Next Year in Jerusalem, a musical parody debuting at the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival 2005.  

Mary has stage managed a variety of NYC productions including: Sam Younis' Browntown (Buffalo Speedway), Handan Ozbilgin's Rumi's Math (Times Circle Theater), Adam Jortner's Golem (Actor's Theater of Louisville Showcase), Carson Kreitzer's Valerie Shoots Andy (Reverie Productions), Stephen F. Kelleher's Blood Sport (Lost Tribe Theater Company), among others. Acting credits include numerous performances at Vanderbilt University. 

Maya Serhan's theatre credits are "Sabra" in How his Bride came to Abraham, Looking Glass Theatre (dir. Courtney Mitchell); "Kitty/Sappho" in Anna Karenina,Public Theatre (dir. Peter Jursen); She recently completed the independent feature, Liars and Lunatics (dir. Robert Munoz) over the summer. TV credits: Law and Order, "Corner Office" (dir. Joan Stein). She has studied with Bob Krakower and Jackie Bartone, and is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. 

Maysa Abouzeid is a legally blind, 18 year old Australian-Italian- Egyptian- Muslim female comedian working with the Melbourne based Victorian Arabic Social Services A.R.A.B Anti Racism Action Band youth performing arts project. In her two year stint as a comedian Maysa has chalked up over thirty gigs including her own high school assembly, Melbourne International Comedy Festival Class Clown and Raw Comedy Heats, and the 5th International Women's Health Conference held in Melbourne. 

Maysoun Freij largely inhabits the non-comedic worlds of public health and anthropology. She served as the volunteer coordinator for the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival for two years, and also volunteers for other arts organizations including Alwan for the Arts. The Panel is her first creative contribution to the Comedy Festival. 

NOTE FROM WEB PRODUCTION TEAM TO PR TEAM: WHITE DUDE NEEDS BIO TO EXPLAIN WHY HE'S HERE. WHY IS THIS WHITE GUY HERE? THERE'S NOTHING ON HIS HEADSHOT. IS THIS SOME RANDOM GUY THAT SENT A HEADSHOT? IS THIS THE UNDERCOVER FBI GUY THAT GOT THE WRONG ASSIGNMENT? PLEASE HAVE DEAN CONTACT US TO EXPLAIN WHAT'S GOING ON. THANKS! 

Mousa acted in Grenade in the 2004 Festival. He received his training at the Atlantic Theater Company. In 2004, he completed an amazing run in this year NYC Fringe Festival in Precipice. He has worked with the Joe Clancy's Drilling Company in summer 2004's Honor. In Fall 2004, he appeared in Olga George's play The Murderess. He is grateful for everyone he meets that blesses his life. 

Formed in February of 2002, the New York chapter of the Network of Arab-American Professionals (NAAP) has developed rapidly and currently has a network of over 1,600 people in the NYC metro area! NAAP-NY is dedicated to upholding the NAAP mission of empowering the Arab-American community and has developed a socially responsible Arab-American community, bringing attention within the Arabic community as well as to the broader American society.  

Nathalie Handal has been involved either as a writer, director or producer in over twenty productions worldwide. She is the author of two poetry CDs Traveling Rooms and Spell (tabla by Egyptian musician Will Soliman); two poetry books The NeverField and The Lives of Rain (Shortlisted for The Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize/The Pitt Poetry Series). She teaches at Columbia University and is recipient of the Menada Award, an international literary prize awarded to her in Macedonia. 

Founded in June 2001, Nibras is an Arab-American theater collective built upon a shared passion and united by a common heritage. Our mission is to create a network for Arab-American theater artists to share their talent, experience and passion by staging imaginative and articulate productions that increase the positive visibility and creative expression of Arabs and Arab-Americans. 

Nigel Parry is an alternative media pioneer and web designer based in New York City whose clients have included the United Nations, Birzeit University, and Soul Asylum's Daniel Murphy. His portfolio includes the award-winning Electronic Intifada, Electronic Lebanon, and Electronic Iraq websites, the Tilsner Artists' Cooperative site, Maysoon Zayid's site, and the new Festival website, launched in 2005. Nigel offers freelance web, print, and multimedia design services, publicity and Internet consulting through his company, nigelparry.net.  

Omar returns to the NYAACF this year as a co-writer and actor. He has been actively involved with the Festival since it�s inception in 2003. He is also a founding member of Nibras, an Arab American Theater Collective. Omar�s television sketch comedy work includes appearances on Late Night with Conan O�Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman. Other credits include recurring roles on All My Children and One Life to Live. Film credits include Devil�s Advocate and Jesus� Son. 

Omar Metwally has been a participant in the first two New York Arab-American Comedy Festivals, as an actor and then as the director of With Love From Ramallah. As an actor he was seen most recently off-Broadway as "Aram" in Beast on the Moon. Omar received a Tony Award nomination for his work in Sixteen Wounded (Best Actor: Featured Role-Play), and has appeared at theaters around the country, as well as with many fine companies here in New York. He recently completed work on a role in Steven Spielberg's latest film. 

A real life Egyptian American Performance Artist and Director, Rania Khalil's original work for the theater has been seen internationally and throughout New York. Her latest work, Between the Shadows recently premiered at HERE Arts and is in new venues this fall. Ms. Khalil wishes to thank Leila Buck and dedicates this show to her mom and family in Cairo. 

Sam Younis is thrilled to take part in the 3rd Annual NYAACF. He has just returned to New York after playing a lead role in the World Premiere of Baby Taj, which just completed a regional run at Theatreworks in Mountain View, CA. Sam acted in his own playwriting debut, Browntown, at the 1st Annual NYAACF, which ran at the NYC Fringe Festival, and won a 2004 Fringe NYC Award. 

Sami Metwasi is co-founder of INAD, the first professional theater in southern Palestine. At INAD, he wrote, composed the music for Karakozi. He also worked with Maralam Theatre (Switzerland), Interkunst Theatre (Germany), Picolo Theatre (Italy). Sami was also involved in interventional theatre, theatre of the oppressed, and children's theatre. Sami was granted the 2001 UNESCO Award for Artists in India.  

Sarena Kennedy is currently performing in the moving art instillation Wild Animus around the globe. She trained with SITI Company in 2002. She is also shooting and indie feature with director Jazzmyn Banks. She is the co-creator and performer of several works. She dances, she hand models, she makes people laugh. She holds a B.F.A. in Theater from UCLA. She is very excited to be creating and performing with Leila Buck again. 

Shoshana is thrilled to be part of this amazing festival. She recently received her MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College where she was the recipient of the Buchwald Fellowship. Before coming to New York, she lived in Austin where she worked with the Rude Mechs, Salvage Vanguard, Hyde Park Theatre, and the State, among others. Her production of John Walch's play, Circumference of a Squirrel, won the Austin Critics Table Award for Best Production of a Comedy. 

Sound designer and musician. Designs include: The Loneliness of N. Chomsky by Noel Salzmann, Interlude by Kim Ima, Marino Formenti and Ping Chong for the Lincoln Center Inst; FUS Festival, Italy (2003); Rafi Festival, Pakistan (2001); The Great Jones Repertory Tour, Former Yugoslavia (2000). Technical Director: La Mama Umbria, (2000-2002), CAMT Prague Tour & Shakespeare in the Park Festival (2004). He runs NOBODEGA recording studio and DJs in and around NYC.  

Sturgis Warner develops and directs new plays. Playwrights he has worked with include Adam Rapp, Michael John Garcés, Elisabeth Karlin, Oscar Colón, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Cusi Cram, Henry Guzmán, Ted LoRusso, Yussef El Guindi among others. He is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop and an Artistic Associate at The Lark Play Development Center. 

Suheir Hammad is the author of ZaatarDiva, (Cypher Books, 2005).  Her work has appeared on television, radio, stage and page throughout the world.  The author of two other books, Suheir is also an original writer and cast member of the TONY Award-winning Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam on Broadway.   

Suzy Salamy was has been working in film and television for the last seven years. Her films include About Baghdad with InCounter Productions and Until When with Falafal Daddy productions. She has been writing comedy for years in her head and only now has the opportunity to share it with you — enjoy! 

Most recently was technical director for Dean Obeidallah's I Come in Peace and Negin Farsad's Bootleg Islam presented at the 45th Street Theater. He was assistant stage manager for the 2005 New York Arab-American Comedy Festival. Prior to moving to NYC he performed on stage and behind the scenes for many shows in Chicago's vibrant storefront theatre community. He is very proud of his work with Robert Hostetter producing The Longing, based on Palestinian and Israeli oral histories both in the theatre and on film. 

Will is a graduate of St. Johns University, where he studied Pre-Law and minored in Theatre. Throughout his college curriculum he acted in numerous tv commercials, and dabbled in a bit of modeling. Shortly after graduating he took a break to focus on enjoying life, and without a doubt is back in the game. He can be currently seen in an upcoming episode of Guiding Light, hosting a TV show for the We Network, and recently booked a national commercial for The Olive Garden. Will continues training with Bill Esper at The William Esper Studio 

While not an Arab American, Yanal Kazan holds the Middle East close to his heart. From the displaced Peoples of the Caucasus Mountains, generations of his family lived in the Golan Heights and Damascus. He is a music-psychotherapist and healer and is a trained musician and music therapist. He has the ability to understand people's reactions to music and when he steps up to the decks as a DJ, everyone dances to the break of dawn. 

Yussef El Guindi is primarily a playwright living in Seattle. Originally from Egypt, he did his graduate studies at Carnegie-Mellon University and was playwright-in-residence for several years at Duke University. He has had plays performed around the country. His play, Karima's City, and the company that first produced it, Golden Thread Productions, presented the piece at the Cairo Experimental Theater Festival. 

Zaki Abdelhamid recently moved to NYC from Seattle after working with Tony Award nominee Bart Sher on Homebody/Kabul. Zaki's favorite credits include All the Kings Men with director Adrian Hall, and Romeo and Juiliet, All's Well that Ends Well, and Mrs. Warrens Profession, among others. Zaki is a graduate of PTTP at the University of Delaware.