From Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Graduated from Brown University.
Spent a year working with acting theorist and pioneer, Jerzy Grotowski
(Towards a Poor Theater).
Has taught acting on his own and alongside Andre Gregory in New York
City & Vienna, Austria.
Alumnus of the Graduate Film Program at Columbia University, with a
degree in directing. Winner of a New York Documentary Center's Young
Documentary Filmmakers' Award, an IFP Audience Choice Award and
Programming Committee's Award for Best Film at the 2003 Columbia
University Film Festival.
Author of numerous plays and screenplays. Ayad was star and co-writer
of The War Within (Magnolia), which was nominated for an Independent
Spirit Award for Best Screenplay.
His first novel, American Dervish, is being published by Little, Brown
and Company in January 2012.
Life Document 2: Identity(2002)
The War Within(2005)
The Invisible Hand
Too Big to Fail(2011)as Neel Kashkari
FCU: Fact Checkers Unit(2007)
Long After(2006)as Naseer
The Mark of Cain(2001)
On with Kara Swisher(2022)as Self
Would I Lie to You(2022)as Self - Guest
Kulturplatz(2004)as Self
Titel, Thesen, Temperamente(1967)as Self
Pod Save the World(2017)as Self - Author, Homeland Elegies