Arian Moayed

Arian Moayed was born in Tehran, Iran, on April 15, 1980. His family emigrated to the United States in 1986, settling in Glenview, Illinois, where Moayed grew up in a Muslim household. He graduated from Glenbrook South High School in 1998 and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 2002. During his time at university, he actively participated in various theatrical productions, performing in plays by notable writers such as Samuel Beckett, Carlo Goldoni, and William Shakespeare.

After college, Moayed moved to Manhattan, New York. In 2002, he co-founded Waterwell, a New York-based theater, education, and film company, alongside director Tom Ridgely. Waterwell focuses on a socially conscious and civic-minded approach to its projects, aiming to empower audiences. Through Waterwell, Moayed has been involved in developing over a dozen original stage productions. As a writer and director for Waterwell Films, he created and directed “The Accidental Wolf,” an Emmy and Webby-nominated streaming series. He also helps administer public school arts programming in New York City with Waterwell Drama Program, providing theater and citizenship training to students.

Moayed’s acting career includes significant roles in theatrical productions, such as Musa in Rajiv Joseph’s “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,” for which he received a Tony Award nomination in 2011. He also starred as Richard Saad in Stephen Karam’s “The Humans,” a Tony Award-winning play. On television, he gained prominence for his role as Stewy Hosseini in HBO’s “Succession” (2018–2023), which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Other notable television roles include Todd Spodek in Netflix’s “Inventing Anna” (2022) and Agent P. Cleary in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021) and the Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel” (2022). He further received an Obie Award in 2016 for his performance in “Guards at the Taj.”