Nasim Pedrad

Nasim Pedrad was born in Tehran, Iran, on November 18, 1981. Her family relocated to the United States when she was three years old. Pedrad pursued her education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), graduating in 2003 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Beginning her career in comedy, she performed with The Groundlings Sunday Company and presented her one-woman show, “Me, Myself & Iran,” at various Los Angeles venues. Her early television appearances included a small role in ‘Gilmore Girls’ (2006), a guest role in ‘The Winner’ (2007), and a recurring role as Nurse Suri in ‘ER’ (2007–2009).

Pedrad joined the cast of ‘Saturday Night Live’ (SNL) in 2009, initially as a featured player, before becoming a repertory player in the 2011–2012 season. She remained on SNL until 2014, contributing to 109 episodes through various characters. Following her departure from SNL, Pedrad starred in the Fox sitcom ‘Mulaney’ (2014–2015) for 13 episodes. She also had recurring roles in other television series, including ‘New Girl’ (2015–2018) as LAPD officer Aly Nelson, appearing in 28 episodes, and ‘Scream Queens’ (2015) as Gigi Caldwell for 10 episodes in its first season.

Her film credits include voice roles in animated films such as ‘The Lorax’ (2012) and ‘Despicable Me 2’ (2013), and live-action roles in ‘Cooties’ (2014) and ‘Aladdin’ (2019), where she played Dalia. In 2020, she starred as Wesley in the Netflix film ‘Desperados’. A significant milestone in her career is the creation, writing, and starring role in the TBS/The Roku Channel sitcom ‘Chad’ (2021–2024), where she also served as an executive producer.