A curated selection of some of my work as a writer, producer, director and editor.

Paiman Kalayeh is a two-time Emmy nominated writer, producer, director, editor and creative lead. He grew up in a first-generation Iranian American household in Delaware, where he was inundated with his immigrant parents’ unwillingness to assimilate to basic social norms. His favorite? Haggling with the sales clerks at Wawa every time they got hoagies. 
 

He received his B.F.A in Film & TV at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he wrote and directed extremely pretentious short films that still managed to premiere at notable film festivals like Austin, Nashville, Newport Beach and SXSW. 

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After college, he relocated to the mecca of alt milk, Los Angeles, where he gradually paid off his student loans by working as a TV producer and editor on such shows as Stevie TV, Love You, Mean It with Whitney Cummings, Deon Cole’s Black Box, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Ellen and Chelsea. 

 

He won back-to-back Emmys in 2009 and 2010 for Best Short Promo, while working as the head writer, producer and director for NBC4’s on-air marketing department.  He's since worked in the same capacity for some of the biggest marketing brands in tech and entertainment including Google, Disney, Bravo, NBCUniversal, Fresh Cut Creative, Studio City PXL, Stun, Done and Dusted and No Slate.

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Kalayeh is also a part-time documentary filmmaker.  He made his directorial debut in 2012 with the critically acclaimed documentary, Kingdom Come, featuring Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle and

Kevin Smith.  It premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival and sold to Showtime.

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He got his big break writing for scripted TV, when he got into NBC’s highly coveted TV writing program. Since then, Kalayeh has staffed on eight shows including The Cleveland Show, Big Hero 6: The Animated Series, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero and Sunnyside.

 

On the development front, he most recently wrote and produced on The Jetsons reboot starring John Mulaney for Netflix and WB. He also EP’d and supervised a half-hour animated series for HBOMax, starring Hari Kondabolu and Aparna Nancherla and another half-hour animated series for 20th Century starring Topher Grace and Jenna Fischer. 

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Currently, he’s adapting Eric Chase Anderson’s popular cult novel, Chuck Dugan is AWOL, starring and executive produced by Brad Pitt.