Ayad Akhtar

Birth Name:

Ayad Akhtar

Birth Place:

New York City, New York, United States

Profession

Actor, Writer

Wrote the play "Disgraced," for which he won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Author of "American Dervish," which won the Best Book of the Year at Kirkus Reviews, O Magazine, and Toronto's Globe and Mail in 2012
Was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for "The War Within․"
Graduated from Brown University and Columbia University with degrees in Theater and Film Directing
Quote: "(On "Disgraced"): "I wanted to write a play that would affect an audience so deeply they would then walk away being forced to ask all kinds of questions the play could not answer for them․""
Quote: "I wrote ['Disgraced'] and the novel 'American Dervish' around the same time․ They just came out of me․ They're opposite sides of the same argument - Amir is the self-loathing skeptic and 'American Dervish' is about a young boy who's devout․"
Best known as a writer and for his role as Hassan in "The War Within" and as Neel Kashkari in "Too Big to Fail․"
Has been teaching acting since 1999, both solo and alongside Andre Gregory, with a focus on naturalism in film

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