Maysoon Zayid

Maysoon Zayid is an actress and professional standup comedian, who received her BFA in acting from Arizona State University. She is the co-founder and co-executive producer of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival and can be seen on Comedy Central's The Watch List and in the upcoming Adam Sandler movie, You Don't Mess With Zohan. She has appeared on As The World Turns, Law & Order, MTV, NBC Nightly News, CNN, ABC's 20/20, The New York Times, and WashingtonPost.com.

As a professional comedian, Maysoon has performed stand-up in top New York clubs, and has toured extensively in both the USA and abroad. She was the first comedian to perform stand-up live in Palestine, performing in Nazareth, Haifa, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem.

Maysoon is a graduate of The Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab-American Leadership. She spends 3 months a year in Palestine where she runs Maysoon's Kids, a scholarship and wellness program for disabled and wounded refugee children and orphans.

In the fall of 2006, Maysoon debuted her one-woman show Little American Whore at LA's Comedy Central Space. L.A.W. was produced and directed by the legendary Kathy Najimy and is currently being developed into a feature film slated to begin production in 2008 insha'Allah.

For more information about Maysoon, see maysoon.com