Ahmed Ahmed was born in Helwan, Egypt on June 27th, 1970. His parents immigrated to the U.S. when he was one month old and he grew up in Riverside, CA. He moved to Hollywood when he was 19 years old to pursue a career as an actor and stand-up comedian. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Here’s some of Ahmed Ahmed’s standup from the “Axis of Evil Tour”:
Mr. Ahmed can be seen in such films and television shows as Iron Man, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, Vince Vaughns Wild West Comedy Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, Swingers, Tracey Takes On, Roseanne, JAG, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central, and MTV’s PUNK’D.
He has also appeared on CNN, The View, and NPR, and was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal in December of 2001. Recently, he can be seen in the film City of Life, the first feature film to be shot entirely in Dubai, U.A.E., which premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2009. He was the recipient of the first annual Richard Pryor Award for Ethnic Comedy at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival in Scotland.
A paid regular performer at the world famous Comedy Store in Hollywood and the Comedy Cellar in New York City, Mr. Ahmed tours all across America, and the globe, with his stand-up comedy. Just Like Us, his directorial debut, is an award winning documentary currently playing at the Nashville Film Festival.
Just Like Us ponders the question: Is there comedy in the Middle East? Despite there being no easy way to describe stand-up comedy in Arabic, a group of “comedy ambassadors” travel from Dubai to Beirut, Riyadh to Cairo with a double mission: to disrupt the pervasive image of Muslims as solemn, threatening, and inhuman, and deliver some much-needed relief and laughter to the intense reality of everyday life in the Middle East. As thoughtful as it is entertaining, “Just like Us,” shows us the Middle East like most Americans have never seen it before. Featuring the talented antics of Maz Jobrani, Tom Papa, Ted Alexandro, Tommy Davidson, Omid Djalili (“The Infidel”), Whitney Cummings, and Ahmed Ahmed himself, this documentary offers an incredibly timely glimpse into a world the West is only beginning to understand.
TONIGHT: Go see Ahmed Ahmed LIVE! at the Basement
Monday, 4/18, 7:00pm & 9:00pm
The Basement: 1604 8th Avenue South
$12 General Admission
$9 NaFF Members
FREE for NaFF Laminate-holders
For more info about Ahmed Ahmed, visit his website: Ahmed-Ahmed.com
