Shaparak Khorsandi is an Iranian-British comedian and author. Born in Tehran, Iran, as a young child her family fled to London in the wake of the Islamic Revolution after her father, the satirist Hadi Khorsandi, was sentenced to death by the Ayatollah over satirical poetry critical of the regime.
Khorsandi has performed comedy live, on radio and on TV around the world, including in Britain and Australia.
She has written three books, A Beginner’s Guide to Acting English (2009), a memoir about her childhood and settling in England with her family, and the novels Nina is Not OK (2016) and Kissing Emma (2021).
In 2017, Khorsandi came out as bi, saying:
I think it’s a lot easier to come out as bisexual now but when I was [18], straight friends of mine, it would jolt them. […] ‘Oh, are you bisexual, are you going to fancy me now?’ So you sort of go back in the closet. And don’t mention it again for another decade. […] I don’t think I’ve mentioned it publicly until now.
She noted that her “life would have been different if bisexuality had been more accepted” when she was a teenager.