Shappi Khorsandi is a British/Iranian comedian and writer. She was born in Iran but her and her family moved to London after the Islamic Revolution after her father published a satirical poem critical of the Ayatollah and his regime, and became the target of an assassination plot. She graduated from the University of Winchester in 1995 with a Drama, Theatre and Television degree and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in 2010.
She does observational/deadpan stand-up comedy and has been on Have I Got News For You, QI and many BBC Radio 4 programmes, to name a few. She has performed alongside Russell Kane and Al Murray, and was on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and 8 Out of 10 Cats in 2009. She also does work outside of comedy – in January 2016 she was made the president of the British Humanist Association and she’s appeared on Question Time as a panellist multiple times.
Her first book, A Beginner’s Guide to Acting English published in 2009, was about her experience in England as a child and she looks at English customs, the Iran/Iraq war and difficulties her family have faced. Her second book, a novel called Nina is Not OK, was released in 2016 and is about a 17-year-old girl with a drinking problem.
Shappi Khorsandi’s Oh My Country! tour will be coming to the Nuffield Theatre on April 30th. Tickets are available here.
