Born in the Great State of New Jersey, Dean’s comedy comes in large part from his unique background of being the son of a Palestinian father and a Sicilian mother. Dean, an award winning comedian who was at one time a practicing attorney, has appeared on
“The Axis of Evil” Comedy TV special which aired in the US on Comedy Central and in the Middle East on Showtime Arabia. He is the co-creator of Comedy Central.com’s critically acclaimed Internet series
“The Watch List” featuring a cast of all Middle Eastern-American comedians performing stand up and sketch comedy.
Dean co-directed, along with Negin Farsad, the upcoming comedy documentary “The Muslims Are Coming!” featuring a tour of American-Muslim comedians performing free comedy shows across the heartland of America in the hopes of using comedy to foster understanding and dispel misconceptions about Muslims. The film can be in theaters in select cities and available online this September.
Dean has appeared twice on
ABC’s “The View,” on the nationally syndicated TV series “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen” and was one of five comedians profiled in the recent one hour TV Special entitled:
“Stand Up: Muslim-American Comics Come of Age” which aired in the US on PBS and internationally on BBC World and Al Jazeera.
Dean is currently co-directing and co-producing the documentary
“The Muslims Are Coming!” featuring a tour of American-Muslim comedians performing free comedy shows across the heartland of America in the hopes of using comedy to foster understanding and dispel misconceptions about Muslims. The film also features special guest interviews with various well known people including: “The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart and Assif Mandvi, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien and Ali Velshi, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Current TV’s Cenk Uyger, comedians Lewis Black, David Cross and Colin Quinn as well as Congressman Keith Ellison, and many more. The documentary will (hopefully) be released in the fall of 2012.
Dean is the co-creator and co-producer of the
New York Arab-American Comedy Festival which will hold its 9th annual Festival in October 2012. He is also proud to serve as the Executive Director of
The Amman Stand up Comedy Festival – the first stand up comedy festival ever held in the Middle East which took place in December 2008. The third annual Amman Festival was held December 4-10, 2010. Dean has appeared on numerous international and national television and radio programs including CNN’s “What The Week,” “American Morning” and “The Situation Room,” CNN Headline News’ “The Joy Behar Show,” PBS’ “Newshour with Jim Lehrer,” ABC’s “Nightline,” MSNBC, Current TV, HD’s “Dan Rather Reports,” NPR, Alhurra TV, Fox News’ “Geraldo at Large,” ABC’s “20/20,” Al Jazeera’s “Min Washington,” MBC’s morning show, “Democracy Now with Amy Goodman,” NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and CNN International’s “Inside the Middle East.” In addition, he has been featured in various publications including Time magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times and he frequently writes for
CNN.com and
The Huffington Post. He has written jokes which have been featured on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live’s” Weekend Update segment and CBS’ “The Late, Late Show.”
Dean is proud to have received the first annual “Bill Hicks Spirit Award” for “thought provoking comedy” (named after the late comedian Bill Hicks) from the NY Underground Comedy Festival and the Hicks’ Family.
He also co-created the comedy show “Stand up for Peace” along with Jewish comic Scott Blakeman which they perform at colleges across the country in support of peace in the Middle East and as a way of fostering understanding between Arab, Muslim and Jewish-Americans.
In addition to performing comedy throughout the US, Dean has performed in the Middle East in Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Israel, Qatar, and Dubai.
Dean Obeidallah appears in the following:
Friday, November 17, 2023
Dean Obeidallah talks about how to find humor in difficult times as the festival celebrates its 20th anniversary with a show on Sunday, November 19th in Midtown Manhattan.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Stephanie Butnick, Dean Obeidallah and Jordan Carlos discuss the idea of the American dream today and why immigration is an essential part of our democracy.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Dean Obeidallah, Maysoon Zayid & Atheer Yacoub talk about comedy, religion, and politics, and about their evolving roles as Muslim comics in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
The 13th annual New York Arab-American Comedy Festival kicks off today at comedy clubs throughout the city.
Friday, February 12, 2016
"Valentine's Day is ridiculous. An invented holiday to make money off of gullible people."
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Joking about religion is controversial. But stand up comedians are jumping in at the Muslim Funny Fest in New York this week.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
The comedians Negin Farsad & Dean Obeidallah discuss their "Fighting-Bigotry-With-Delightful-Posters" campaign, conceived as a response to ads on the MTA that demonized Muslims.
Friday, January 23, 2015
The Leonard Lopate Show's three favorite segments from the last week, in case you missed them.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Guest host Aasif Mandvi talks with Dean Obeidallah about being a Muslim-American comedian, at home and abroad.
Thursday, January 08, 2015
When it comes to comedy, how far is too far?
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Comedians Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah discuss their documentary “The Muslims Are Coming!” Farsad and Obeidallah lead a group of Muslim-American standup comedians as they go on the road to counter Islamophobia using the only weapon they have: jokes. The film follows them to big cities, rural villages, and everything in between to do shows, meet locals, and counter the haters. “The Muslims Are Coming! opens September 20 at the Quad Cinema.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Host Andy Borowitz challenges comedians Lee Camp, Negin Farsad, Todd Barry and Dean Obeidallah to dissect everything that’s on America’s mind (and front pages), from Texas State Senat...
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Dean Obeidallah is a fan of Glee! Find out what else he told us after his recent appearance on The Leonard Lopate Show.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Leroy Chapman, government and politics editor at
The State, the largest newspaper in South Carolina, and comedian
Dean Obeidallah talks about the presidential campaign in South Carolina, including new candidate, comedian Stephen Colbert.