Shidan Majidi

Shidan Majidi has been working in the New York film and theater industries since 1991. As a volunteer at New York's 52nd Street Project, his awareness for the need of storytelling as a powerful social tool became crystal clear as this after school theatrical project focussed on inner city youth telling their own stories through theater. The empowerment and confidence-building scope of this program inspired him to create The One People Project - an award-winning conflict resolution-based "Reality Theater Project" which received critical praise and media attention in New York City and was supported by New York City Mayor David Dinkins' Stop the Violence Program. The success of the project in all boroughs of NYC resulted in a similar spin-off in Toronto where a television program was produced in Canada documenting the effective social impact of this artistic project in a racially-charged and conflicted suburb of Toronto in the late 90s. For the past nineteen years, Shidan has been running the New York Broadway office for legendary Producer, Sir Cameron Mackintosh on some of the world's most beloved musicals: Cats, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, The Phantom Of The Opera, Mary Poppins; and the recent Academy Award-winning film of the musical Les Miserables starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway. He was also the Associate Director of the North American tour of Miss Saigon. In 2009, he made his producing debut off-Broadway on the hit musical, Yank! for which he was nominated by the Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical. In 2017, Shidan created, co-produced and directed a documentary film, Me, The 'Other' set in the Washtenaw County of Michigan chronicling the lives of a group of students from very diverse backgrounds and how they each triumphantly overcame adversity in these challenging times.