Pardis Parker

is the creator and star of Comedy Central’s Mideast Minute. As a writer, his work has been published by the New Yorker, New York Times, New York Review of Books, Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicago Sun-Times, New Quarterly, Weekly Humorist, Lit Hub, Electric Literature, and McSweeney’s. His short story, Good Person, was named runner-up for the Peter Hinchcliffe Short Fiction Award, his humor piece, I am the NY Times Connections Puzzle and I am the Reason  Everyone is Angry, was named Electric Literature’s Most Popular Post of 2025, and his two half-hour television series, Free and Uncivil, sold to Amazon Prime with Plan B Entertainment, and to NBC with Universal Television and Hazy Mills Productions. The New Quarterly called his prose “ambitious” and “cracking,” the Jerusalem Post praised his writing as “sharp” and “smart,” and Turn & Work said his fiction “oozes charm,” making you “laugh out loud more than once.” As a performer, he’s a six-time Canadian Comedy Award nominee, a frequent guest on Comedy Central’s @midnight, a contributing correspondent and writer for CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, an actor who’s  appeared on shows for ABC, CBS, CBC, Showcase, Family Channel, Comedy Central, and others, and a stand-up comedian whose first TED Talk, I’m Tired of People Telling Me to “Grind,” was recorded at TED2021, whose second TED Talk, I’m Terrified of Wanting to be a Billionaire, was recorded at TED2022, whose third time on stage at TED was as a specially-invited guest host at TED2023, and whose stand-up
clips have gotten over 100 million views online, mostly on Reddit. Repeatedly lauded for his “big, expressive eyes,” Vulture called him a “great comedian,” and the Toronto Sun hailed him as Canada’s next great comedy talent – the “next in line” after Mike Myers and Jim Carrey.