Mostafa Azizi

Mostafa Azizi is an Iranian writer, screenwriter and producer of television programs. Some of his productions like Talash game-show, Mosafer and Rahe Bi Payan TV series were among the most highly-watched programs of their time. A book of his short stories in Farsi titled, "My Name is Raymond Carver" was published in 2010 in Iran. Since 2010, Azizi has immigrated to Canada and currently lives in Toronto where he is the director of Alternate Dream Productions Inc. Even though he was a graduate of theoretical economics from Tehran University, Mostafa started his professional life as a writer and editor of educational and scientific programs in the Iranian National Radio in 1986. In 1990, he moved to television and became the director of Computer Animation Unit (CAU). At the same time, he was the manager of software engineering department in IRIB. At the time when computers were, for the first time, coming to Iran, he was among a generation of managers who played a pioneering role in acquiring latest technology for Iran. For these purposes, he made numerous trips, as part of IRIB delegations, to the West, including visits to Hungary, Germany, Turkey and Dubai. As a pioneer in bringing Computer-generated Animation to Iran, he always kept his interest in animation and is still a member of international ASIFA. For four years (2002-2006), he headed the Iranian section of ASIFA. In early 1990s, he started producing his own TV programs and co-operating in this capacity with Iranian national TV channels. In 1994, he left the IRIB as an employee to open up the "Kelk-e-Khial" as a private film-producing company. He served as its managing director until immigrating to Canada in 2010. His first success in television came with the game-show Talash (Struggle) which, designed and produced by Azizi, was broadcasted from 1997 to 2000. It became known for giving out a Peykan (the national automobile in Iran) to some of the best winners. According to polls, up to 72 percent of TV spectators, watched the program. Readers of Soroosh magazine elected it as the best TV program of 1998-9 (1377 in Persian calendar). Same was done by the readers of Sinema Magazine for the following year. In 2000, he wrote and produced his first TV series, Mosafer (Direted by Siroos Moghadam) for the Tehran TV channel of IRIB. It was an instant success by gaining 73 percent of spectators, 88 percent of which rated it as "highly" or "very highly" satisfying (according to IRIB polls.) Azizi thus made a name for himself as a successful screenwriter and producer of TV programs. In 2006-2007, he produced Rahe Bi Payan (Endless Road) (Directed by Homayoon Asadian) which was also successful in gaining audience and also critically acclaimed. He went on to produce the TV Series "Gav sandoogh" (2010, directed by Maziar Miri) and Television movies "Baazi" (2008, directed by Soroosh Sehat), "Enteghal" (2008, directed by Alireza Bazrafshan) and "Shifte Badi" (2010, directed by Jorj Hashemzadeh.) Even though he made a living in television, he always kept his intellectual side. He started a popular blog on politics and literature, titled Shabah (Spectre), in 2002, only exposing his identity years later in 2011, few years after Shabah was closed down. He now blogs with his real identity in a blog titled "Qoozake Pelatini". Through the years, many of his articles and stories were published in Iran and after his immigration to Canada, in Farsi publications there. His first collection of short stories, titled "My name is Raymond Carver" came out in Tehran in 2010. In Canada, he has opened up the private film-producing company Alternate Dream Productions Inc.