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Jalal Fatemi

Jalal Fatemi was born in Tehran, Iran. His mother is Paridokht Sepehri [née], the sister of Sohrab Sepehri, the renowned Iranian poet and painter, and his father is Javad Fatemi, a businessman. He has two sisters and one brother. He showed interest in the art of illustration and film from early age. A few years before the Iranian Revolution, Fatemi left his homeland for the US. He graduated from Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1975. He studied art at West Minster College and University of Utah. A few years later, he moved to Valencia, California to study film at CalArts, The California Institute of the Arts. He earned his BA in film in 1982.

All through the 1980s, Jalal Fatemi worked as PA in several Hollywood productions including Francis Ford Coppola's One From the Heart and American Heart starring Jeff Bridges. He later worked as a film editor at Comcast Cable Vision. During his six year stint at the company, he directed and produced many television spots and promotional videos.

In 1989 he directed the sci-fi, The Nuclear Baby, which later earned several awards at various US film festivals, including Houston International Film Festival and Enid Film Festival in Oklahoma. The film was widely shown on many US and European television networks.

In 1995 Jalal Fatemi returned to homeland, Iran. While making many award winning TV commercials and television films, he directed his next feature film, Nokhodi [The Little Pea] which won the Golden Butterfly award for best film, best VFX and best direction in the Iranian Children-Youth Interational Film Festival. His fifth film, Don't Forget Your Childhood, is a sci-fi comedy which was screened in 2015 and later, entered various international film festivals. Both films were widely distributed through out the nation and received warmly by the Iranian audience. Jalal Fatemi is also a well known actor in Iran. The Fox, Don't Be Tired!, Them, 21 Days Later, Dressage and TV series, The Puzzle, The Light of Day/The Dark of Night, Silent Terror, and Wall to Wall are among his mostly recognizable performances in films and television.