Meet Omid Iranikhah | Writer/Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Omid Iranikhah and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Omid, alright, let’s jump in with a deep one – what’s you’re definition for success?
My definition of success is being able to tell the stories I want to tell and making a stable living doing it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As a writer/director, I primarily focus on telling stories that put Iranians and/or members of the diaspora front and center. I’m well-aware of the tired tropes of what has become known as “Diaspora Art,” and try to subvert these tropes through my work. In other words, I have no interest in showing you that we can be likable.

Not all of my films are *about* being Iranian, but all of them are about Iranians in all of our complexity. I especially had this mission in mind when I made my short film “Coffee With Baba” (produced by Mercedes Garcia under our production company Stray Cats Productions), which follows a painful but revelatory conversation/argument between an Iranian-American twentysomething and his Trump-voting Iranian father. Since showing it around at festivals, we’ve had people from just about every background you could think of reach out to say they have had similar conversations with their own parents or relatives.

“Coffee With Baba” is only a taste of what I have to offer as a filmmaker. Over the course of my career, I want to put us in just about every genre you can think of.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I could probably spend a whole day browsing the movie section at Amoeba Music. Who needs to eat/drink/whatever when you can do that?

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I dedicate my shoutout to my family and my partner & Stray Cats Productions co-founder Mercedes Garcia, without whom I would not be the artist and person I am today.

Website: https://straycatsproductions.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omidiranikhah/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@straycatsproductions/videos