Meet Sarah Fatemi

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Fatemi.

Sarah, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born and raised in Ohio and always knew I wanted to pursue entertainment. I used to write In my spare time and sometimes pretend I was a character in a movie. When I was ten, I used to perform standup comedy in front of my parents and their friends. At the time, I didn’t know it was standup comedy and just saw it as a way of getting attention!

My parents weren’t too thrilled about a career in entertainment at first, so I got my undergraduate degree in Marketing and International Business as well as half my MBA before heading to Los Angeles at 23 for graduate school. I was in Writing and Producing for Television program.

During my first year, a classmate was hosting an open mic at a mostly empty bar and having secretly always wanted to try standup, I went ahead and performed a few minutes and was instantly hooked! I started going to auditions and networking, and three years later, I’m performing all over LA at huge clubs like The Comedy Store on lineups with Whitney Cummings and Maz Jobrani.

As for “Saffron ‘N Rose,” I created the first three episodes for my graduate thesis project. I had written for an underground blog years ago that focused on the taboo lives of first-generation Iranian-Americans, and I always thought it’d make a cool TV show.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
In general, having to convince my parents that this could be a viable career option and wanting to move to LA was tough. For a whole year, I treated my applications to film school like a part-time job, blocking out hours a day to focus on them.

Getting representation in the entertainment industry has been tough, especially since there aren’t a whole lot of roles for women of color. So I decided to create my own path and build my own web-series. I wanted to show Middle Eastern women in a different light than what we see in the media – that we can be funny, witty, and strong. I’m currently working on future episodes, and struggles with that include funding and cast members having to drop out.

As for standup, there have been times I’ve bombed, and there have certainly been people trying to bring me down and discredit the hard work I’ve put in just to get stage time. A lot of the industry is based on, and the comedy community isn’t that big; everyone knows each other.

I would say the biggest struggle, above all, is keeping stability in LA. I went through a 7-month period of unemployment before landing a job at a production company last year, where I was looking for work and was hopping place to place around the city, picking up odd jobs and trying not to move back home. There’s always a struggle to balance time and money between work and your passions.

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I am most proud of the fact that I created a web-series that put a spotlight on Middle Eastern women in comedy, yet was also palatable to non-Middle Eastern people as well.

The same goes for my standup; the way we change perceptions is visibility in the media. It’s so awesome being able to connect with people from all around the world with Instagram (where I update my show-dates and post clips).

I’m even in contact with several comedians in Iran, where my family is from and where standup has taken the country by storm.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I have to thank my parents, first and foremost. They’ve really supported my passion, especially after seeing how much Comedy means to me. My co-star, Maral, who was the other half to The Saffron ‘N Rose kickass acting duo.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @sarahfatemicomedy
• Twitter: @sarakijoon

Image Credit:
@paulywoodforever, @albahmani

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