Arian Moayed
Arian Moayed (, born April 15, 1980) is an Iranian-born American actor, writer, and director. Moayed received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" and also starred in the Tony Award-winning "The Humans." Moayed gained prominence for his role as Stewy Hosseini in HBO's "Succession". Early life. Moayed was born in Iran. His father is a banker by profession. His parents immigrated from Iran in 1986. The family settled in Glenview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, when Moayed was five years old . He speaks Persian. Moayed graduated from Glenbrook South High School in 1998. He then received a bachelor's degree from Indiana University in 2002. During college, he appeared in plays by Samuel Beckett, Carlo Goldoni and William Shakespeare. Career. Moayed moved to Manhattan after college. In 2002, Moayed and director Tom Ridgely, who was Moayed's roommate at Indiana University, co-founded the Waterwell, a theater, education and film company based out of New York. Waterwell has produced more than a dozen stage productions and shows since the theater was established. He portrayed the character of Musa in Rajiv Joseph 's "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," where Moayed appeared opposite Robin Williams. Moayed received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Musa at the 65th Tony Awards in 2011. He also received a Drama League Award nomination and received a Theater World Award. As a writer/director, Moayed wrote and directed his first short "Overdue", which premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival and was released on The Business of Being Born website. His second film, "Day Ten," stars Omar Metwally and is about the days after September 11, 2001, premiering at  the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2016, he starred as Babur, one of two characters in "Guards at the Taj", a play written by Rajiv Joseph, alongside Omar Metwally as Humayun. For his performance, he received a 2016 Obie Award presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Village Voice. In 2017, Moayed starred as Richard Saad in Stephen Karam's "The Humans", which performed at the Roundabout Theater off-Broadway, Helen Hayes Theater and Gerald Schoenfeld Theater on Broadway as well as the Hampstead Theater in London, United Kingdom. The production was directed by Joe Mantello and produced by Scott  Rudin and garnered Moayed a Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award and a Tony Award for Best Play. Since 2018, Moayed has starred as Stewy Hosseini in HBO's "Succession". Waterwell. Waterwell focuses on socially conscious and civic minded approach to theater, education, and film. Waterwell mission states, "empower its audience to change their lives and the world in which they live." As the co-founder of Waterwell, Moayed has helped devise over a dozen original productions including most recently a dual-language "Hamlet" (played the title role) to critical acclaim. Also with Waterwell, Moayed produced a forgotten war musical  called "Blueprint Specials", produced on board of the Intrepid with a cast of veterans. With Waterwell Films, he has written and directed the Emmy nominated and Webby nominated "The Accidental Wolf", a premium short form series starring Kelli O'Hara, Laurie Metcalf, Denis O'Hare, Brandon Dirden, Ben McKenzie, Judith Ivey, Reed Birney, Marsha Stephanie Blake and a cast of over 70 Tony nominations on its own platform, theaccidentalwolf.com. Personal life. He lives in New York City with his wife, Krissy Shields and his two daughters, Olive Joon and Ivy Shireen.