Dean Obeidallah

Born in the Great State of New Jersey, Dean's comedy comes in large part from his unique background of being the son of a Palestinian father and a Sicilian mother. Dean, an award winning comedian who was at one time a practicing attorney, has appeared on Comedy Central's "Axis of Evil" Comedy special and is the co-creator of Comedy Central.com's critically acclaimed Internet series "The Watch List" featuring a cast of all Middle Eastern-American comedians performing stand up and sketch comedy.

Dean recently made his second appearance on ABC's "The View" and appeared on the nationally syndicated TV series "Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen." Dean also was one of five comedians profiled in the recent PBS one hour TV Special entitled: "Stand Up: Muslim-American Comics Come of Age" which also aired on BBC World and Al Jazeera. He has appeared on numerous international and national television and radio programs including CNN's "American Morning" and "The Situation Room," PBS' "Newshour with Jim Lehrer," HD's "Dan Rather Reports," NPR, Fox News Radio, ABC's "20/20," Al Jazeera's "Min Washington," "Democracy Now with Amy Goodman," BBC's "The Oracle," and CNN International's "Inside the Middle East." In addition, he has been featured in various publications including Time magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.

Dean performing in summer 2006 in his one-man play, I Come In Peace, chosen by Time Out NY as one of the top 6 comedies to see in the New York International Fringe Festival. (Photo: nigelparry.net)

Dean is proud to have received the first annual "Bill Hicks Spirit Award" for "thought provoking comedy" (named after the late comedian Bill Hicks) from the NY Underground Comedy Festival and the Hicks' Family. He also served as the Executive Director of The Amman Stand up Comedy Festival held in Amman, Jordan in December 2008 - the first stand up comedy festival ever held in the Middle East. The second annual Amman Stand Up Comedy Festival will be held December 4-11, 2009.

In addition to performing comedy throughout the US, Dean has performed in the Middle East in Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Haifa, Dubai and Ramallah. For more information about Dean, please visit: www.deanofcomedy.com.