Pirooz Kalayeh is an Iranian American filmmaker, writer, and professor whose formally adventurous, hybrid cinema interrogates institutional power, displacement, and the boundaries of non-fiction storytelling. A solo practitioner who often serves as his own cinematographer, editor, and sound designer, Kalayeh blends cinematic disciplines to create deeply intimate, politically urgent visual essays. His latest feature film, My Room in Tehran Was Called America (2027), epitomizes this form-shattering approach—weaving bedroom diaries, cross-border histories, and choral critiques of Western structures into a singular cinematic tapestry. 

"I was born in Iran but raised in America. My whole life has always been split between these two worlds. Inside the house, was gormet sabzi, Persian rugs, and eating on the floor. Outside, was hamburgers, Star Wars, Scooby Doo, and America. I grew up like this all my childhood — and when I found myself in other communities, whether it was Hollywood, South Korea, I found immense healing and joy from bridging these two worlds together artistically, and, more often than not, my stories between echoed and helped others from multicultural backgrounds find a common ground and come together."