born in Tehran in 1981; fled to Turkey in 1983, and sought political asylum in West Berlin; played with Lego a lot, and ate many Duplos – there are many people, known and unknown, to whom I am grateful; moved again, this time to London around 1990; got the hang of English; secondary school was stimulating mainly on account of Shiv Malik and an incredible philosophy club run by our physics teacher Phillip Thonemann; went on to study physics and philosophy as an undergrad at the University of Bristol, stayed on for an MA, and then went to LSE for a PhD (but there is a whole academic biography for all that) throughout which time I worked in many bars, but also got to travel extensively; I moved to LA in 2013.

I mostly owe my love of food and food culture to the Persian women I grew up around, especially my aunt in Austria. Peter Gerard taught me how to make ice cream and got me hooked on Triple Motion ice cream machines. I don’t really know why I like design and architecture so much – all I can report is that as far back as I remember, it’s the only thing for which I have had a near unlimited attention span.

(all photos are my own (except for the two which aren’t))