Dean Obeidallah is an American

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

, and

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

. He is the host of SiriusXM Progress' ''The Dean Obeidallah Show'' and a frequent contributor to

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

, and

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

. Obeidallah was born in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

and is of

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

descent.

Early life and education

Obeidallah was born in Lodi,

, and grew up in nearby Paramus. His father was a Palestinian immigrant who came to the United States in the 1950s. Obeidallah received a J.D. from

Fordham Law School Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. According to Fordham University School of Law's ABA- ...

and practiced law from 1993 to 1998 with the firm of Beattie Padovano. His first performance as a comedian was at the New Jersey State Bar Association's stand-up comedy show. He then left the practice of law and was accepted into the NBC Page program in 1998. Obeidallah was a rights and clearance researcher for ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' while also performing stand-up comedy in New York City.

Career

In 2005, Obeidallah received the first "Spirit of Bill Hicks" award, named in honor of comedian

Bill Hicks William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian and satirist. His material— encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy— was controversial and ofte ...

for "thought provoking comedy" from the NY Underground Comedy Festival and the Hicks family. He co-produced with the

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

winning comedy writer and best-selling author

Max Brooks Maximilian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American actor and author. He is the son of comedian Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks's writing focuses on Zombie (fictional), zombie stories. He was a senior fellow at the ...

a new show entitled ''The Watch List'' for

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

's Internet channel. This was the first show ever produced by a major American entertainment company to showcase all Arab-American performers. Obeidallah has appeared on Comedy Central on the critically acclaimed "Axis of Evil" Comedy special. He is the co-founder, along with Maysoon Zayid, of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival. It is held annually in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and showcases Arab-American comedians from across the United States. The 20th annual Festival will be held in 2023. He cocreated ''The Muslim Funny Fest'' in 2015, the United States' only Muslim stand-up comedy Festival. The second year of the festival was held in July 2016. Obeidallah served as the Executive Producer of the Amman Stand-up Comedy Festival held in

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

, Jordan from December 2–6, 2008. The third annual Festival was held from December 4 to 10, 2010. He co-directed/co-produced the award-winning documentary with comedian/filmmaker Negin Farsad entitled '' The Muslims Are Coming!'' focusing on freedom of religion for all Americans. The

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

focuses on a free stand-up comedy tour by American-Muslim comedians across the South and West. It also features celebrity interviews with a wide range of people including The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, CNN's Soledad O'Brien and Ali Velshi, Congressman Keith Ellison, comedians Lewis Black, David Cross, Colin Quinn, Lizz Winstead, and others. The film was released in September 2013. In addition to appearing at hundreds of comedy clubs and colleges across the United States, Obeidallah has performed stand-up comedy in Canada and in the Middle East in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, Oman,

Sharm El Sheikh Sharm El Sheikh (, , literally "bay of the Sheikh"), alternatively rendered Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el Sheikh, or Sharm El-Sheikh, is an Egyptian city on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in South Sinai Governorate, on the coastal strip alo ...

and

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

. In June 2019, a federal judge ordered

Andrew Anglin Andrew Barret Anglin (born July 27, 1984) is an American neo-Nazi, conspiracy theorist, and editor of the website '' The Daily Stormer''. Through his website, Anglin combines Nazi ideology with Internet memes originating primarily from 4chan ...

, editor of the neo-Nazi website ''

The Daily Stormer ''The Daily Stormer'' is an American neo-Nazi commentary and message board website that advocates for a Second Holocaust, second genocide of Jews. It is part of the alt-right movement. Its editor, Andrew Anglin, founded the outlet on July 4, ...

'' to pay $4.1 million to Obeidallah, whom Anglin had accused of orchestrating the

Manchester Arena bombing The Manchester Arena bombing, or Manchester Arena attack, was an Islamic terrorism in Europe, Islamic terrorist suicide bombing of Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, on 22 May 2017, following Dangerous Woman Tour, a concert by the Americ ...

Controversy

Obeidallah appeared on the December 28, 2013 episode of

's Melissa Harris-Perry show. On a "photos of the year" segment of that program, Obeidallah and a panel of comedians made several jokes about a family picture featuring former Republican presidential candidate

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...

's family, including his adopted black grandson, joking that the photo represented the diversity of the Republican Party. This sparked outrage, and Obeidallah later apologized to the Romneys for the remarks.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Obeidallah, Dean 1969 births Living people 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians American comedians of Middle Eastern descent Muslims from New Jersey American people of Palestinian descent American people of Italian descent American male comedians American stand-up comedians CNN people MSNBC people Muslim male comedians People from Lodi, New Jersey People from Paramus, New Jersey Comedians from Bergen County, New Jersey