Shaparak "Shappi" Khorsandi is an Iranian-born, UK-raised comedienne. She was born in Tehran, but early in her life her family was forced to flee Iran for London after her father (Hadi Khorsandi) criticized the Ayatollah in a satirical poem. Khorsandi performs stand-up comedy, having been a noted performer at Joe Wilson's Comedy Madhouse in 1997. She has appeared on many BBC Radio 4 programmes, including Quote... Unquote, Loose Ends, You and Yours, Midweek, Just A Minute, The Now Show and The News Quiz. She also writes an occasional column for online magazine Iranian.com. In 2007, she made her first trip to Australia and the Melbourne Comedy Festival with her show "Asylum Speaker". She also appeared live on the Australia comedy talk show Rove in 2007. In December 2008 she appeared on the BBC stand-up television show Live at the Apollo alongside Russell Kane and Al Murray. She is married to fellow comedian Christian Reilly.
