Aaron Aryanpur

Aryanpur was born in Texas; his father was a Persian immigrant, and his mother was Jewish. He grew up in the Texas towns of Denton, Palestine, and Plano, and graduated from Plano Senior High School. Growing up, he was a fan of comedians who addressed social issues, including George Carlin and Bill Hicks. He studied graphic design at the University of Texas at Dallas, graduating in 2000. In 1998, he created the university's mascot Temoc, a flame-haired anthropomorphic comet originally named "Blaze." ==Career==

Stand-up comedy Aryanpur first performed stand-up in 2002, and became a full-time comic in 2013. His material is often about his family life as a father and husband. Jeremy Hallock of the Dallas Observer has noted that Aryanpur's style, typified by long-form stories with an "impeccable sense of rhythm", avoids the lack of edginess associated with family comedy by "capturing the anger and frustration that goes with the territory while making it hilarious". Aryanpur himself is not Indian but of Iranian descent, but was invited because, as Aryanpur said jokingly in an interview, "they looked around for Indian comics and ran out after only two," but needed a third for the tour's theme to work. Varghese also joked to one interviewer that "I said, 'I know this Iranian guy, his name ends with -pur. Close enough.'" The Dallas Observer has frequently singled him out for praise, most notably by naming him the city's best comic in 2017. It also included him in a list of "10 Dallas Comedians You Need to Know" in 2015, and profiled him in the "100 Dallas Creatives" series in 2014. The newspaper noted that his success has helped the city as a whole, saying "Aryanpur is one of the reasons why Dallas has a comedy scene." and comedy festivals Gilda's LaughFest in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Dallas Comedy Festival, Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival, and the Plano Comedy Festival. He has been featured on Comedy Central Radio. Albums Aryanpur has released two comedy albums on Stand Up! Records. His 2016 debut In Spite Of reached No. 10 on the Billboard comedy chart August 10, 2016, and No. 1 on the iTunes comedy chart. Richard Lanoie of The Serious Comedy Site called Employee "excellent through and through" and that Aryanpur was "immediately likable." The album cover features Aryanpur's own illustration. and Bite the Bullet. He often draws caricatures of other comedians. He has also created posters for comics including J.T. Habersaat and Eddie Pepitone. He has worked in the advertising industry as a creative director. His voice work includes the video games Paladins: Champions of the Realm and Smite. ==Personal life==

He is married and has two sons. ==Discography==

• Aaron Aryanpur, In Spite Of (Stand Up! Records, 2016) • Aaron Aryanpur, Employee of the Day (Stand Up! Records, 2018) ==References==