Behnam Gilani

Born on February 4th, 1971. My first brush with the film and television industry took place during my formative teenage years. Filled by a burning desire to learn more about the intricacies of the movie business, I spent most of my summer vacations in the technical rooms of the National Iranian Television where a number of my favorite elder cousins used to work. And, when my mom landed a minor role in an experimental Telefilm, the passion for acting as well began to take hold. At the age of 21, I moved to Dubai, United Arab Emirates where I met Mr. Nicanor A. Odejar, a university professor, who played a significant role in developing my communication, writing, and business skills. I call him "Dad" now. Realizing the value of good education, I then went on to complete my Bachelor's Degree in Information Systems at the University of Humberside & Lincolnshire - UK. Not content with just having a university degree, I also enrolled for an online course and began studying film studies - Film Directing. And, to hone my English writing skills, I started writing comic fictions, short stories as well as articles, which were often published by the local daily newspapers such as "Gulf Today", "tabloids", etc. My write-ups appeared regularly in the newspaper's section "Time Out". My articles likewise appeared later in another Dubai based newspaper "Khaleej Times". In 1999, I met an industrial filmmaker based in Dubai, who introduced me to the who's who of Dubai's film industry. Such encounters eventually led to my receiving many offers to act in TV commercials or produce voiceovers and the like. In 2001, I acted in N. B's first feature film "Don Juan of Karaj". This was soon followed by acting roles in different TV shows and commercial ads. In one of them, I acted along with "Mr. George Ghardahi", a Lebanese celebrity, actor and TV presenter who had recently produced a TV hit "who wants to win a Million). In 2006, I again got the lead role in the feature film "Are You Still Around?" which was shot in Dubai. The film participated in a few international film festivals later on. Apart from acting, I also write both in Persian and English. In fact, my first collections of hand-written poems have already been published in a book entitled "I'm alive with you, I Live for You". My first book was released in Tehran in late 2005. My second book, "Straw Paper", was released in early 2007. Publishers promised me that my Persian language books will also be translated into English, Arabic, and French too. They lied. In 2019, after three years of research and writing, I completed my third book, an epic 790 pages, a four-volume-book, and my first book written in English "In Parallel to the Euphrates". This novel is being edited currently and is scheduled to be published in early 2022. I just finished writing a Sci-fi/Mystery Screenplay. I've decided to convert my epic novel "In Parallel to the Euphrates", into a Television Series Film Script. For several years beginning 2001, I worked in Dubai as the Media Manager for a well-known freehold property developer. Those years saw me producing TV and radio commercials, industrial and social documentaries, infomercials, as well as directing over 102 TV Commercials, infomercials, short films, etc. for different companies in Dubai/UAE, England, Ireland, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Lebanon, Bahrain, Iran, Russia, etc. Then I got married to my ex and moved to Europe. In June 2008, I received my master's degree in Film Directing. Currently, I only write screenplays as I'm not allowed to work in my country for many years now because I believe in peace and freedom (freedom of speech, religion, love, etc). My current focus is on completing my TV series film script but I welcome directing telefilms, features, and TV commercials outside Iran. The latest telefilms that I have directed and co-produced include "Peggy's Happy Days", "Flute", "Write my Story", "Square", that all have controversial angels to them (That's one of the reasons I'm not allowed to work in this country). My latest completed film project, a documentary titled: "Riding the Rainbow" was nominated for an award in Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2012 and CEBU Film Festival 2014. I'm here in hopes that selling my screenplays would open a door for me to get out of this country and feel real freedom once again.