Shabnam Rezaei is a Kids TV show creator, director, producer and co-founder of

Big Bad Boo Big Bad Boo is a Canadian production company that specializes in animated series for television as well as games, apps, websites and curriculum development. Popular TV series are 16 Hudson, based on the miniseries Lili & Lola and musical series AB ...

Studios and VOD service Oznoz. She is the director and producer of Hulu Original series '' The Bravest Knight'', the first children's series with an

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

Q protagonist. The all-star cast includes T. R. Knight, Bobby Moynihan, Storm Reid, RuPaul, Wanda Sykes,

Wilson Cruz Wilson Cruz (born Wilson Echevarría; December 27, 1973) is an American actor known for playing Rickie Vasquez on ''My So-Called Life'', Angel in the Broadway tour production of ''Rent'', Dr. Hugh Culber on '' Star Trek: Discovery'', and the re ...

, and Christine Baranski. The Bravest Knight won the 2020

GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids and Family Programming The GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids and Family Programming is one of the annual GLAAD Media Awards which is offered to the best youth-oriented LGBT-related television series. The category was first established in 2018 at the 28th GLAAD Medi ...

. In 2019, Rezaei directed the short film Balloon Girl, which was a finalist in the PBS Online Film Fest. Set in

Stadtpark, Vienna The Stadtpark (City Park) in Vienna, Austria is a large municipal park that extends from the Ringstraße in the Innere Stadt first district up to the Heumarkt (Hay Market) in the Landstraße third district. The park is divided in two sections by ...

, the short film was part of the worldwide, London-based Hope Works Project, a series of short films to inspire kindness, understanding and hope in children around the world. Rezaei is the creator of the animated preschool series ''

16 Hudson ''16 Hudson'' is a Canadian animated series. It is developed by Big Bad Boo based on the fifteen-episode miniseries ''Lili & Lola'' from 2015. It has been broadcast by TVOKids since August 21, 2018 and Knowledge Kids since September 3, 2018. T ...

'', which features a family with two dads, and families from various backgrounds such as Ireland, India, China and Iran. The series is based on ''Lili & Lola'' a mini-series created by Rezaei in 2015. ''

'' currently airs on

TVOKids TVOkids (short for TVOntariokids and stylized as tvokids) is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by TVOntario (TVO) in Canada. It was launched on April 1, 1994 and runs from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily. The brand also operat ...

, Ici Radio-Canada Télé,

Knowledge Network Knowledge Network, also branded as British Columbia's Knowledge Network, is a Canadian publicly funded educational cable television network serving the province of British Columbia. It is owned by the Knowledge Network Corporation, a Crown co ...

, Amazon Prime Video,

Discovery Kids Discovery Kids (stylized as Discovery K!ds) is a brand name owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Starting as a television segment within the Discovery Channel, the brand expanded as a separate television channel. Most of its worldwide channels were e ...

, TFO, Oznoz,

Vme Kids Vme Kids is a Spanish-language children's television channel operated by V-me Media, catering to the needs of preschool-aged Hispanic and Latino Americans. The channel launched exclusively through AT&T U-verse cable systems on September 1, 2010. ...

, and

Rádio e Televisão de Portugal Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) is the public service broadcasting organisation of Portugal. It operates four national television channels and three national radio stations, as well as several satellite and cable offerings. The current co ...

with Season 2 introducing a refugee family.

won the Mipcom Diversify TV Award in 2021 in Cannes, France, beating out Disney Junior's Mira, Royal Detective and the Cbeebie's JoJo & Gran Gran in the Preschool category. In 2022, Lili & Lola was nominated for the Mipcom Diversify TV Award in the Preschool category.

Career

Rezaei created and produced ''

1001 Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'', an animated children's series based on stories from '' One Thousand and One Nights''. Every episode opens with the famous storyteller Shahrzad, King Shahryar, and kids Donyazad and Shahzaman. The series won three

Leo Awards The Leo Awards are the awards program for the British Columbia film and television industry. Held each May or June in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the Leo Awards were founded by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British C ...

for Best Animation Program or Series, Best Screenwriting in an Animation Program or Series, and Best Overall Sound in an Animation Program or Series. Her first television series, '' Mixed Nutz'', promotes diversity and multiculturalism through a group of friends from Iran, Korea, Cuba, Austria, and India. The series was a continuation of their work '' Babak and Friends'', and included the voice talents of

Shohreh Aghdashloo Shohreh Aghdashloo ( fa, شهره آغداشلو, ; née Vaziri-Tabar (); 11 May 1952) is an Iranian and American actress. Following numerous starring roles on the stage, she made her film debut in '' Chess of the Wind'' (1976). Her next two fi ...

, Parviz Sayyad, Ali Pourtash, and Catherine Bell. Her directorial work includes ''16 Hudson'', ''Lili & Lola'',''1001 Nights'', and ''Mixed Nutz''. Rezaei is also the creator of Persian cultural online magazine ''Persian Mirror''.

Personal life

Shabnam was born in Tehran, Iran and grew up in Vienna, Austria, where she attended the

American International School of Vienna The American International School Vienna (AISV) is a non-profit international school in Vienna, Austria. AIS Vienna is accredited by the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges, USA, and the Council of International Schools, and is recog ...

. She studied Computer Science Engineering and German Literature at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in Philadelphia. She later obtained an MBA from the

New York University Stern School of Business The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (commonly referred to as NYU Stern, The Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. I ...

. She speaks five languages.

Filmography

Television

References

External links

*
Big Bad Boo Studios

''Persian Mirror''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rezaei, Shabnam Living people 21st-century American writers American people of Iranian descent Canadian people of Iranian descent American women screenwriters American television directors American television producers American television writers Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) LGBT producers Showrunners American women television writers 21st-century American women writers American women television producers American women television directors