PERFORMERS

Azhar Usman is a standup comedian, comedy writer, and successful entrepreneur. Educated as an attorney on a full scholarship at the University of Minnesota Law School, Azhar co-founded, developed, and grew an Internet startup company in the late 1990s. The business was ultimately acquired by Providian Financial Corp. (NYSE: PVN) for an undisclosed seven-figure sum in April 2001, which was about the time Azhar began to seriously pursue his true passion: standup comedy. Since 2001, Azhar has performed his unique brand of standup comedy all over North America and several parts of Europe. During that time, he has become one of the world's most prominent English-speaking Muslim comedians, garnering significant attention from leading media outlets such as The New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, NPR, BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The India Times, DAWN of Pakistan, Al-Ahram Weekly of Egypt, Jawa Pos of Indonesia, and many others. He has been the subject of several documentary films, and will soon be the subject of an upcoming episode of ABC Nightline with Ted Koppel. In 2004, Azhar co-founded "Allah Made Me Funny-The Official Muslim Comedy Tour," with fellow American Muslim comic Bryant "Preacher" Moss, a twenty-year veteran of the mainstream comedy industry and former comedy writer for Saturday Night Live's Darrell Hammond (NBC), George Lopez of The George Lopez Show (ABC) and Damon Wayans (now also on ABC). The duo has multiple television and film concepts either in development or production as of late 2004. Beyond comedy, Azhar is also an experienced lecturer, presenting around the country on a variety of subjects while drawing on his insights as a successful entrepreneur, lawyer, and community activist. He serves as a co-founding Board Member of The Nawawi Foundation (www.nawawi.org), and educational non-profit foundation created to foster research and development of an American Muslim intelligentsia to support American Muslim social and cultural creativity. He also serves on the Strategic Advisory Board of The Starlatch Press, a publisher and purveyor of translated classical and traditional Muslim texts, and is an authorized Spokesperson for the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (www.ciogc.org), an umbrella body representing a consortium of Muslim organizations in and around Chicago.

Salih Memecan is the political cartoonist for Sabah Newspaper, a major national newspaper in Istanbul, Turkey. Memecan's daily short political animations are aired on ATV, a national Turkish TV channel, after the main news bulletin. His works have appeared in various newspapers in United States of America. Memecan is the creator of popular Sizinkiler comic strip in Turkey. Memecan attends World Economic Forum in Davos as a regular contributer. Born in Giresun, Turkey; Memecan received his BA and MA degrees in architecture from The Middle East Technical University in Ankara. He received his PhD. from The Universty of Pennsylvania as a Fulbright scholar.