Mahyad Tousi is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and filmmaker with nearly two decades of experience working across multiple media platforms. He is currently writing and producing a television adaptation of Ted Chiang’s award-winning novelette “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate.” Tousi wrote and co-created “REMOTE” in 2022 with renowned video artist Mika Rottenberg, marking his directorial debut. Previously, he executive produced two seasons of the CBS primetime comedy “UNITED STATES OF AL,” honored by the MPAC Media Awards for “reaffirm[ing] the importance of on-screen representation and narrative building.”
Originally a conflict zone videographer and documentarian, Tousi has been writing and producing narratives across film, TV, VR, and emerging media for 18 years. Beyond the screen, he founded Starfish, a hybrid social enterprise investing in underrepresented artist-entrepreneurs and amplifying their culture-defining ideas. He is also the co-founder of BoomGen, an independent incubator and cross-platform development studio, and sits on the advisory board of MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality.
Born in 1973 in Portland, OR and raised in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Tousi spent his childhood amid revolution, war, and a drastic reorganization of society. He emigrated to the United States as a teenager and now splits his time between Los Angeles and New York, where he’s lived for the last 26 years.