Conflict and Comedy: Part 2
June 4, 2021 @ 3:00PM — 4:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
A follow-up to our 2020 Conflict and Comedy event, featuring Paul Feig, Maz Jobrani, and Aparna Nancherla
Join us on June 4 at 3:00pm for a live conversation about humor in a time of conflict with three talented comedians: Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”, “Spy”, “A Simple Favor”), Maz Jobrani (“Superior Donuts”, “Immigrant”), and Aparna Nancherla (“Corporate”, “CRASHING”).
New York Peace Institute’s (NYPI) Manager of Training and Business Development, Ayanna Behin, will moderate a continuation of our 2020 “Comedy and Conflict: a Conversation”, focused on life and conflict in 2021 through a humorous lens.
In 2021, New York Peace Institute is celebrating its 10th year as an independent nonprofit organization and the 40th year of Community Dispute Resolution Centers (CDRC) in New York State. NYPI is committed to promoting peace in our communities. As an expert in conflict response, New York Peace Institute empowers people to find creative and durable solutions to their disputes. NYPI teaches vital conflict resolution skills to communities and organizations and advances the field by training and certifying professional mediators
This event will be $25, all of which will go towards supporting our free mediation, restorative justice, and other conflict resolution services for New Yorkers. For more information about individual sponsorship levels, please see here.
Panelist Bios
Paul Feig
Paul Feig is a multi-talented creator, working successfully as a filmmaker, writer, producer, and author whose films have grossed over one billion dollars worldwide. Feig’s directorial credits include the feature films Last Christmas, A Simple Favor, Ghostbusters, Spy, Bridesmaids, The Heat, Unaccompanied Minors, I Am David and Life Sold Separately and episodes of Nurse Jackie, Bored to Death, Weeds, Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks (which he also created). Feig serves as an executive producer for NBC’s musical dramedy Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, HBO Max’s anthology series Love Life and the upcoming show Minx for HBO Max. He won the 2008 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series for his "Dinner Party" episode of The Office. His next directing projects include The School for Good and Evil for Netflix and episodes of Welcome to Flatch for Fox, which he is writing, directing and producing.
Aparna Nancherla
Aparna Nancherla started out doing comedy in her hometown of Washington D.C. and now resides in New York City. 2016ʼs Elleʼs Women in Comedy Issue, featured her as one of the most exciting new voices to hit the comedy scene. She is a series regular in Comedy Centralʼs Corporate and has reprised her role in season 3 of HBOʼs CRASHING. Aparna is also featured in the second season of Netflixʼs TheStandups. Other television credits include Apple TV+ʼs Mythic Quest: Ravenʼs Banquet, Netflixʼs Master of None and LOVE, HBOʼs High Maintenance, Comedy Centralʼs Inside Amy Schumer, appearing as a US correspondent for Daveʼs (UK) Unspun with Matt Forde, and Huluʼs I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman. She is the voice of Meena on Mira, Royal Detective, Hollyhock on BoJack Horseman, and Moon on The Great North.
In 2018 she makes her feature debut in the Paul Feig movie A Simple Favor. Her TV stand up appearances include Seesoʼs stand up series Night Train with Wyatt Cenac, season 2 of ComedyCentralʼs Meltdown as well as Adam Devineʼs House Party. In 2013, she made her late nightstand up debut on TBSʼs Conan and was one of the breakout New Faces at the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. Her TV writing credits include Late Night with Seth Meyers as well as being a regular correspondent/writer on FXʼs Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.
She is also an alumna of the NBC Stand Up for Diversity program and currently headlines throughout the world and has been seen at a number of festivals including Comedy Centralʼs Clusterfest, Portlandʼs Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Moontower, SF Sketchfest, DCʼs Bentzen Ball, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo and Dublinʼs Vodaphone Comedy Festival. Aparnaʼs been featured on and in NPR, Readerʼs Digest, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post Magazine, XM Radio, and Slate V.
Maz Jobrani
As an actor, he was most recently seen playing the loveable “Fawz” on the CBS comedy Superior Donuts. He has made many appearances on television’s most popular shows including Grey's Anatomy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Better Off Ted, Last Man Standing, and Shameless. He has also been a regular guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert AND The Late Late Show with James Corden.
Maz starred as the title character in the award-winning indie comedy, Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero, a feature which he co-wrote and co-produced. He has co-starred in many additional films, including Sydney Pollack’s The Interpreter, Disney’s Descendants and Ice Cube’s Friday After Next. Maz’s other standup comedy specials include Immigrant, which was filmed at the prestigious Kennedy Center and is a NETFLIX original, as well as 3 additional solo specials on SHOWTIME: Brown and Friendly, I Come in Peace, and I’m Not a Terrorist, But I’ve Played One On TV.
In the Spring of 2016 he performed at the White House where he had the privilege of introducing Michelle Obama. As a UC Berkeley alum, Maz gave the keynote speech to the graduating class of 2017. Maz served as the host for the 45th International Emmy’s in New York. He was a founding member of The Axis of Evil comedy tour, which aired on Comedy Central. He is a regular panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and has given 2 TED Talks. His LA Times Best Selling Book, I’m Not a Terrorist But I've Played One on TV, was published by Simon & Schuster. Maz executive produced Everything Must Change, a documentary about his sister’s battle with breast cancer which is currently available on iTunes.