Nasir Malekijoo

Nasir Malekijoo (b. 1984, Tehran, Iran) is a performance studies scholar, theatre director, filmmaker, and visual artist whose work bridges artistic creation and scholarly inquiry. He earned his PhD from the Department of Theatre and Film at Bowling Green State University, with research focused on performance studies, post-dramatic theatre, visual culture, and object-based performance—particularly in relation to materiality, politics, and transnational performance. He also studied at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany, where he expanded his practice into video art and installation. Across media, his work spans film, theatre, installation, visual art, and interdisciplinary performance.

Professionally active in the Iranian theatre scene since 2005, his practice draws on experimental and European theatre traditions while reworking them through the cultural, political, and aesthetic realities of contemporary Iran, extending these concerns into cinematic and visual forms. As a writer, director, set and costume designer, and actor, he creates immersive worlds shaped by a singular artistic vision. His work is consistently associated with visual theatre and post-dramatic performance, foregrounding striking imagery and the transformation of space and objects into expressive elements, while employing bitter satire and grotesque exaggeration to expose human stereotypes, social absurdities, and political tension.

In filmmaking, Malekijoo extends these concerns into narrative cinema and moving-image work shaped by black irony, human trauma, melancholy, eroticism, mystery, and politics. His films engage the sociopolitical anxieties of post-revolution Iran through atmospheres that merge psychological intensity with visual stylisation. Across his artistic and scholarly work, he brings together humour, critique, visual storytelling, and filmic language into a distinctive and coherent artistic vocabulary.

Education:

Ph.D. in Theater, Bowling Green State University (BGSU), USA, 2025.
M.F.A., Public Arts and New Artistic Strategies, Bauhaus University Weimar (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar), Germany, 2018.
B.F.A., Theater Arts [Acting], Islamic Azad University (IAU) Central Tehran Branch, Iran, 2008.