Bahram Beyzayi

بهرام بیضائی Bahrām Beyzaie
Bahrām Beyzaie pensive, photographed by Fakhreddin Fakhreddini about 2002
Born	(1938-12-26) December 26, 1938 (age 78) Tehran, Iran
Occupation	Playwright, Film director, Theatre director, Screenwriter, Film editor
Years active	1962–present
Spouse(s)	Mozhdeh Shamsai (m. 1992)
Children	Niloofar

Bahrām Beyzāie (also spelt Bahrām Beizai, Bahrām Beyzaie, Persian: بهرام بیضائی‎‎, born 26 December 1938) is a Persian Ostad of arts; a critically and popularly acclaimed film director, playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, film editor, film producer, and researcher.

Bahram Beyzaie is the son of the poet Ostād Ne'mat'ollāh Beyzāie (best known by his literary pseudonym Zokā'i Beyzāie - ذکائی بیضائی). The celebrated poet Adib Beyzāie, considered as one of the most profound poets of 20th-century Iran, is Bahram Beyzaie's paternal uncle. Bahram Beyzaie's paternal grandfather, Mirzā Mohammad-Rezā Ārāni (Ebn Ruh - ابن روح), and paternal great-grandfather, the mulla Mohammad-Faqih Ārāni (Ruh'ol-Amin - روح الامین), were also renowned poets.

In spite of his somewhat belated start in cinema, Beyzai is often considered a pioneer of a generation of filmmakers whose works are sometimes described as the Iranian New Wave. Still, even before the outset of his cinematic career in 1970, he was a greatly successful playwright, so much so that he is often considered the greatest playwright ever of the Persian language, and holds a reputation as "The Shakespeare of Persia."

Beyzaie was born in Tehran, to a poet, anthologist and biographer father and a housewife mother. Zokā'i Beyzāie made a living through a legal occupation and was able to attend to his literary interests reasonably.

The young Bahram did not seem very interested in his family legacy, being poetry, which was pursued by his father, uncles and cousins. In high school, the Dar'ol-Fonoun, he wrote two historical plays which went on to become his preferred method of writing. He started skipping school from around the age of 17 in order to go to movies which were becoming popular in Iran at a rapid pace. This only fed his hunger to learn more about cinema and Iranian visual arts.