Saman Arbabi ( fa, سامان اربابی; born 1973) is an

Iranian-American Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship. Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busine ...

journalist, video director, cartoonist, host, creator, and executive producer of

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

's satirical television shows ''

Parazit Parazit ( fa, پارازیت, ', meaning "static") was a weekly half-hour Persian-language satirical television show broadcast on Voice of America's Persian service. The show poked fun at Iranian politics. Kambiz Hosseini and Saman Arbabi, Iranian ...

'' and ''

OnTen OnTen ( fa, آنتن) was an award-winning hit satirical news show that tackled domestic and international political and social issues. In a 30-minute weekly show, OnTen explored the headlines and the stories behind the headlines with cutting-e ...

''. His work has been called "civic satire", comedy with a political and media mission.

Early life

Arbabi was born in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

Imperial State of Iran Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas ...

in 1973 and moved to France at the age of 12. He moved to France in 1985 and the United States in 1986. He has a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in Communications with a Minor in Art from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

University College.

Career

Saman Arbabi started his career as an intern for the popular DC-based radio show '' Diamond in the Morning'' after an ABC radio show producer, who liked his sense of humor, invited him to leave his job as a cook at

Hooters Hooters is the registered trademark used by two American restaurant chains: Hooters, Inc., based in Clearwater, Florida, and Hooters of America, Inc. based in Atlanta, Georgia, and owned by the private investment firm Nord Bay Capital (with ...

and work with the station. In 2003, he was hired at

(VOA) as the first Iranian

video journalist Video journalism or videojournalism is a form of journalism, where the journalist shoots, edits and often presents his or her own video material. Background A predecessor to video journalism first appeared in the 1960s in the USA, when reporters h ...

. As a video journalist and war correspondent, he covered

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

and the 2006

IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...

talks in

Vienna, Austria en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He produced and reported over 100 stories from the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

''Parazit''

In 2009, Saman Arbabi created the show ''

'', a weekly half-hour Persian language satirical show. ''Parazit'' has been called "''The Daily Show'' of Iran" and "Iran's best and least-loved show" and was one of the most popular shows in Iran, with an estimated 35 million viewers. Arbabi's progressive and edgy style was copied so much in Iran, it prompted Iranians to coin a new term: "Paraziti," meaning "like Parazit," to refer to fans who dressed him. Parazit's success inside Iran prompted Iran's state-run media to launch character assassinations against Arbabi and his work, even creating its own satirical show to counter the effects of Parazit.

''The Daily Show'' appearance

On January 20, 2011, Saman Arbabi and co-host Kambiz Hosseini made an appearance on ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...

'' as guests. At the end of the segment,

Jon Stewart Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He hosted ''The Daily Show'', a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and now hosts ''Th ...

proclaimed, "I just want to tell you, you are like our show, but with real guts and I'm proud to be considered in the same fraternity of humor that you guys are in."

''OnTen and Tablet''

In 2011 he created the award-winning hit political satire show ''

'', which has become Iran's second most popular satire show, after ''Parazit'', with over one million

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

fans combined. In 2015 he created the Persian show Tablet hosted by prominent human rights activist and journalist Masih Alinejad. Tablet has become the second most influential Iranian show since Parazit. The Iranian government continues to threat, scrutinize and attempt to discredit Arbabi's work.

Collaborations

In 2013 Arbabi gave a talk at

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

entitled Iranian Outlaws: Satire vs. Censorship in which, among other things, he unveiled "Weapons of Mouse Destruction," the largest global art project against internet censorship. For Weapons of Mouse Destruction he worked with counter-culture artist

Shepard Fairey Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the " Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker cam ...

, invited

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

co-founder Evan Williams to participate in the campaign. In an election-day special broadcast on June 14, 2013, OnTen featured a segment on street artist JR's

Inside Out Project Inside Out is a global participatory art project initiated by the French photographer JR (artist), JR. After winning the TED Prize, TED prize in 2011, JR expressed his wish to "change the world" by turning it "inside out". With the $100,000 from ...

and aired a special message to the Iranian people from U2's

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended M ...

Awards/special recognition

*2004 - Voice of America Award for Excellence in Programming (coverage of Afghanistan) *2006 - Voice of America Superior Accomplishment Award (Lebanese-Israeli war of 2006) *2007 – Music Video "Edeaa" Tribeca Film Festival Selection *2008 - Winner of The World Academy of Arts, Literature, And Media (WAALM) *2009 - Voice of America Superior Accomplishment Award (Iranian election uprising) *2011 - Voice of America Gold Medal Award Winner (VOA's highest honor) *2012 - Bronze medal at New York Festival's Best Television and Films award *2012 - Washington Life magazine's "The Young And The Guest List" (Washington DC's up and coming young residents that could potentially help run our nation's capital). *2013 - CINE Golden Eagle Spring 2013 Special Recognition for Televised Series

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arbabi, Saman 1973 births Living people People from Tehran Iranian emigrants to the United States University of Maryland Global Campus alumni Voice of America people