WAJAHAT ALI: THE PLAYWRIGHT

Wajahat Ali (playwright) is a Muslim American of Pakistani descent. The Domestic Crusaders is his first full-length play. Born and raised in Fremont, a city located in the Silicon Valley of the San Francisco Bay Area, he has been writing, producing and directing plays, films, and comedy sketches since he was a child, enlisting his friends to be actors and crew. In Fall, 2001, during his undergraduate studies at U.C. Berkeley, he hesitantly began writing The Domestic Crusaders in order to pass a 20 page short story assignment due for a writing class taught by Ishmael Reed, and with his encouragement, transformed the piece into a play which in 2005 was first presented in staged readings and showcase productions in the San Francisco Bay area.

Ali’s essays and interviews on contemporary affairs, politics, the media, popular culture and religion frequently appear in the Washington Post, The Guardian, and Huffington Post, CounterPunch and Chowk, among other on-line sites. His blog, "Goatmilk: An Intellectual Playground" is ranked in the top 7% of all political blogs and recently rated “Great” by blogged.com. He is the associate editor of Altmuslim.com and contributing editor to Illume Magazine. His first short story, “Ramadan Blues,” is published in Powwow: Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience, Short Fiction From Then to Now (Da Capo Press, 2009). His first movie, “Ms. Judgments,” was a finalist for the Link TV Muslim American Film Competition.

Wajahat Ali was honored as an “An Influential Muslim American Artist” by the State Department and invited to their 2008 Annual Ramadan dinner. He was named a “Muslim Leader of Tomorrow” for his journalism work and invited to participate in the 2009 “Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow” conference in Doha, Qatar. He is the recipient of Muslim Public Affairs Council's prestigious “Emerging Muslim American Artist” recognition of 2009. Wajahat Ali is also an Attorney at Law, practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area.