Firoozeh Dumas was born in Abadan, Iran and moved to America at the age of seven. She is the author of two memoirs, FUNNY IN FARSI and LAUGHING WITHOUT AN ACCENT. She has also been published in the NYTimes, LATimes, Wall Street Journal, Good Housekeeping, Gourmet and other magazines. You may have heard Firoozeh on National Public Radio.

In 2005, Firoozeh was a finalist for the prestigious Thurber Prize for American Humor. She is the first Middle Eastern author to be considered for this award. She lost to Jon Stewart. Firoozeh’s father still thinks she should have won.

For the past seven years, Firoozeh has traveled throughout the United States using humor to highlight our shared humanity. FUNNY IN FARSI is currently used in many junior high, high schools and colleges in the United States. Firoozeh hopes that her stories show that our commonalities far outweigh our differences.