Dean Obeidallah
| Dean Obeidallah | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
December 17, 1969 Lodi, New Jersey, United States |
| Medium | Stand-up, Television, Theatre |
| Nationality | American |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Genres |
Satire/Political satire, Observational comedy |
| Subject(s) | American politics, American culture, current events, Middle East, Islamophobia, Islamic humour |
| Website | www |
Dean Obeidallah (born December 17, 1969; Arabic: دين عبيدالله) is an American comedian of Palestinian-Italian descent. He is the host of SiriusXM radio's The Dean Obeidallah Show, which is the only daily national radio show hosted by a Muslim American.
Obeidallah was born in Lodi, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Paramus. His father was born in Battir, Palestine prior to the creation of the State of Israel; his mother's parents were born in Sicily.
Obeidallah received a J.D. from Fordham Law School and practiced law from 1993-1998 with the firm of Beattie Padovano. His first stand up comedy show was as part of the NJ Bar Association's stand up comedy show. He then left the practice of law and was accepted into the prestigious NBC Page program in 1998. Thereafter from October 1999 through May 2007 he was a rights and clearance researcher for Saturday Night Live while performing stand up comedy in the comedy clubs of New York City.
Obeidallah is part of a small but growing number of Arab-American comedians who have increasingly received media attention in the past few years, as they use comedy to both retain and dispel negative stereotypes of Arab-Americans and Muslims.
He and other Arab-American comics have been compared to the groundbreaking minority comedians of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s who have used comedy to raise political and social issues in an effort to change them as noted by The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik:
"Just as comic Lenny Bruce battled the stifling conformity of the 1950s or Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor challenged racism in the '60s and '70s, these performers now are challenging mainstream notions about their ethnic, religious and racial groups."
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