Arian Moayed
Moayed in 2024
Born	(1980-04-15)April 15, 1980 (age 45) Tehran, Iran
Education	Indiana University Bloomington (BA)
Occupations	Actor screenwriter director
Years active	2002–present
Spouse	Krissy Shields
Children	2

Arian Moayed (Persian:آرین مؤید; born April 15, 1980) is an Iranian-American actor, screenwriter, and director. Moayed received twoTony Award nominations forBest Featured Actor in a Play for his performances as anIraqi gardener inBengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (2011) and a domineering husbandA Doll's House (2023), and twoPrimetime Emmy Award nominations for his role as slimyprivate equity investor Stewy Hosseini inHBO'sSuccession.^[1][2][3]

Moayed portrayed Todd Spodek inNetflix'sInventing Anna andAgent P. Cleary in theMarvel Cinematic Universe filmSpider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and theDisney+ seriesMs. Marvel (2022) andWonder Man (2026).

Arian Moayed was born inTehran, Iran. His father is a banker by profession. His parents emigrated from Iran in 1986. The family settled inGlenview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, when Moayed was five years old. He grew up in a family that he has described as "Muslim, practicing Muslims."^[4] He speaksPersian.^[5]

Moayed graduated fromGlenbrook South High School in 1998. He then received abachelor's degree fromIndiana University in 2002. During college, he appeared in plays bySamuel Beckett,Carlo Goldoni andWilliam Shakespeare.^[1]

Moayed moved toManhattan after college.^[2] In 2002, Moayed and director Tom Ridgely, who was Moayed'sroommate at Indiana University,^[2] co-founded the Waterwell, a theater, education and film company based out of New York.^[1][2] Waterwell has produced more than a dozen stage productions and shows since the theater was established.^[1]

He portrayed the character of Musa inRajiv Joseph'sBengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, where Moayed appeared oppositeRobin Williams.^[1] Moayed received aTony Award nomination forBest Featured Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Musa at the65th Tony Awards in 2011.^[1] He also received aDrama League Award nomination forDistinguished Performance and received aTheater World Award.

As a writer/director, Moayed wrote and directed his first shortOverdue, which premiered at theCinequest Film Festival and was released onThe Business of Being Born website. His second film,Day Ten, starsOmar Metwally and is about the days afterSeptember 11, 2001, premiering at theTribeca Film Festival.

In 2016, he starred as Babur, one of two characters inGuards at the Taj, a play written byRajiv Joseph, alongsideOmar Metwally as Humayun. For his performance, he received a 2016Obie Award presented by theAmerican Theatre Wing andThe Village Voice.^[6]

In 2017, Moayed starred as Richard Saad in Stephen Karam'sThe Humans, which performed at theRoundabout Theateroff-Broadway,Helen Hayes Theater andGerald Schoenfeld Theater onBroadway as well as theHampstead Theater inLondon,United Kingdom. The production, directed byJoe Mantello and produced byScott Rudin, won aTony Award for Best Play at the 70th Tony Awards, and garnered Moayed aDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble.

From 2018 to 2023, Moayed starred as Stewy Hosseini inHBO'sSuccession, for which he received nominations for aPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2022 and 2023.^[7][8]

Waterwell focuses on socially conscious and civic minded approach to theater, education, and film. Waterwell mission states, "empower its audience to change their lives and the world in which they live."

As the co-founder of Waterwell, Moayed has helped devise over a dozen original productions including most recently a dual-languageHamlet (played the title role) to critical acclaim. Also with Waterwell, Moayed produced a forgotten war musical calledBlueprint Specials, produced on board of the Intrepid with a cast of veterans.^[9]

With Waterwell Films, he has written and directed theEmmy nominated^[10] andWebby nominatedThe Accidental Wolf, a premium short form series starringKelli O'Hara,Laurie Metcalf,Denis O'Hare,Brandon Dirden,Ben McKenzie,Judith Ivey,Reed Birney, Marsha Stephanie Blake and a cast of over 70 Tony nominees on its own platform, theaccidentalwolf.com.

Moayed lives in New York City with his wife, Krissy Shields, and two daughters.^[1][2]

In October 2023, Moayed signed theArtists4Ceasefire open letter toJoe Biden,President of the United States, calling for a ceasefire of theIsraeli bombardment of Gaza in response to theOctober 7 attacks.^[11] In September 2025, he signed an open pledge with Film Workers for Palestine pledging not to work with Israeli film institutions "that are implicated ingenocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people."^[12]

• Arian Moayed atIMDb
• Waterwell

• 1980 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American male actors
• 21st-century Iranian male actors
• American male stage actors
• American theatre managers and producers
• American male screenwriters
• Indiana University Bloomington alumni
• People from Glenview, Illinois
• Male actors from New York City
• American male television actors
• American male film actors
• Film directors from Illinois
• American Muslims
• Iranian emigrants to the United States
• American writers of Iranian descent
• Actors of Iranian descent
• Male actors from Cook County, Illinois
• Screenwriters from New York (state)
• Screenwriters from Illinois
• Iranian male television actors
• Iranian screenwriters
• Theatre World Award winners
• Iranian Muslims

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Articles containing Persian-language text