Hisham Fageeh

Hisham Fageeh is a Saudi Arabian comedian and actor born on October 26, 1987, in Riyadh. While working on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., he began performing stand-up comedy, and during his Master's studies at Columbia University he trained in improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. His satirical YouTube series "Isboo'iyat Hisham" (Hisham's Weeklies) went viral in December 2011, after which he joined Fahad Albutairi and Bader Saleh among the pioneers of the Saudi stand-up comedy circuit. Fageeh became one of the first Saudis to perform at New York's Gotham Comedy Club, during the 2012 Arab-American Comedy Festival, and went on to headline an Arabic-language stand-up comedy tour across the United States and England. He is best known internationally for his 2013 viral music video "No Woman, No Drive," a parody addressing the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia that drew more than 17 million views. Fageeh also co-produced and starred in "Barakah Meets Barakah," Saudi Arabia's official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2016 Academy Awards. He runs the YouTube channel HishamComedy, where he built his early following through comedy sketches.