Sepehr Haddad and Shahin Shahida were friends long before they joined forces as a new age duo. Guitar player Shahida and keyboard player Haddad, both of Iranian descent, became acquainted when they were both enrolled in Iran’s International School of Tehran. Despite their age difference — Shahida was a lowly seventh grader and Haddad was a lofty upperclassman in the tenth grade — music drew them together.

Like teenagers everywhere, parties were a popular pastime for the youths. Once a week, the pair could be found entertaining classmates with covers of “Stairway to Heaven” and other popular songs of the times, despite their lack of classical training. The two men share an Iranian heritage and their musical abilities and styles complement each other, but their backgrounds are diverse. Haddad was born in the U.S. capital, while Shahida is a native of Iran and attended elementary school in Austria. After leaving the International School of Tehran in 1975, Haddad headed to California, where he became an agriculture student at U.C. Davis.

He spent his evenings ensconced in the region’s coffeehouses, performing covers of songs made popular by Cat Stevens and Jethro Tull. Upon graduation, he headed back to Washington, where he again teamed musically with his old friend Shahida.

From his production company to his foundation, Ali is keen to help young Iranians make it in one of the most exciting fields of work.

This webinar by Persia and Kayhan Life will enable those who are interested to make it in the entertainment industry to consult Ali directly, hear his stories, learn of his insights and follow the path less traveled.

Ali Mashayekhi is an Iranian-Canadian film producer and a graduate of the Canadian Film Center 2016 Producer’s Lab. Ali migrated to Canada in the late 1980’s and grew up pursuing a career in the medical field as per his families requirements. However, after his second year at the University of Toronto, he decided to shift his sights onto film production.

In the past 15 years of content creation, Ali has produced over 50 films around the world since 2003 including; Japan, Indonesia, USA and Netherlands, winning several “Best Short Film” awards for his work and amassing an international reputation for getting the job done.

Ali is also the Executive Director of the Ethnically Diverse Artists (EDA) Foundation, a Canadian non-profit and charitable organization founded by Mena Massoud (Aladdin), which aims to inspire inclusivity and diversity in the arts.

Most recently Ali has produced the award-winning short film Liminal (2020) the feature anthology An Assortment of Christmas Tales in no Particular Order (2019) and the award-winning documentary Because One Day.

Ali has finished production on The First Goodbye, a film shot entirely during the pandemic lockdown, starring Esmé Bianco (Game of Thrones), and is in post-production on a multi-national short film, The Social Industrial Meltdown, about the pandemic to be released in the Fall of 2021.

In the Spring of 2021, Ali will be producing a Stephen King short story adaptation based on Sherlock Holmes, The Last King, entirely in Farsi. This Farsi adaptation will star Maz Jobrani (A Simple Wedding), Navid Negahban (Homeland) and Shiva Negar (American Assassin).

IMDb profile • CFC Creates Alumni • Raindance Jury

Armin Amiri is an actor, producer, restauranteur and a former New York club owner known for its toughest rope policy and anonymous A-List patrons.

Armin was born in Tehran, Iran. At the age of 13, Armin and his family left for Istanbul and after a year, went to Vienna, Austria, to seek political asylum. After four years, Armin moved to San Francisco and studied at ACT conservatory before moving to New York to pursue his passion for acting.

His latest film, The Night, shot on location in Los Angeles, is receiving rare reviews. Amiri is the producer of The Night and will discuss this film as well as other upcoming projects during this rare Persia webinar.