Mahdis Keshavarz

Mahdis Keshavarz (born September 7, 1976) is an Iranian born New York based media strategist, journalist, socio-political media liaison, human rights activist, and former youth television host. Keshavarz parents immigrated to the United States from Iran in 1979.

A 1998 graduate of the University of Washington, she studied communications and international studies. She is currently the principal of The Make Agency and works as a liaison between prominent NGO’s, cultural figures and artists. Keshavarz is the wife of business mogul Shaahin Cheyene.

Early Work

As a teen in the early 1990s Keshavarz worked at a former Mayor Rosemary Ives Office Youth Liaison in the City of Redmond where she was one of the founders of the Old Fire House. She was a teen host of Get Real, a public access television show in Seattle. Keshavarz acted in Edge of Quarrel (2000), a drama about a Straight Edge Punk kid who returns to his hometown after college to discover the local Punks and Straight Edge kids involved in a conflict with one another.

Work

Keshavarz launched her public relations career in 1998 upon college graduation. As a marketing coordinator for the Atrieva Corporation she began working in design, writing, branding, analysis, and editing. By the following year relocating to New York City, Keshavarz helped organize the 1999 Hague Appeal for Peace Conference as a consultant and program assistant. She worked directly with senior members of the United Nations, including the office of Secretary General, and various governments.

Her career fast tracked, landing her in the position of Vice President of Riptide Communications beginning in 2000. While there, Keshavarz continued to cultivate her strong interest in addressing social justice and human rights issues. While at Riptide she worked on high-profile cases for organizations like the Center for Constitutional Rights. At the forefront of the media efforts against the war she was a central PR figure around cases at Guantanamo and anti-war [] and anti-death penalty efforts.

She is a board member of the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association.

Keshavarz works on behalf of select clients and for her companies and offers crisis communications in politics as well as media strategy on arts and cultural issues.

Mahdis Keshavarz has taken the lead media position on select human rights issues concentrating on Middle Eastern matters. She has placed thousands of news stories and op-eds with various media outlets – including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, BBC, The Village Voice, and Al Jazeera – on behalf of her clients.

Her client roster includes international dignitaries, Hollywood stars and numerous film festivals and events focusing on the Middle East community for both a domestic and an international audience.

An accomplished advocate of human rights and social justice issues, Keshavarz has written for the online magazine Slate and has appeared as a commentator on BBC and Democracy Now! She serves on the advisory board for the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association.

Today Keshavarz oversees numerous national and international accounts addressing political, artistic, and cultural issues. Her best known work includes the representation of:

Individuals

Films and Festivals
  • Parvez Sharma; Jihad for Love
  • Annemarie Jacir, Suheir Hammad; Salt of This Sea
  • Arab American Comedy Festival
  • Arab & Iranian Film Festival
  • CinemaEast Film Festival
  • Zayed University Film Festival

Organizations

Books
  • Ferentz Lafargue; Songs in the Key of My Life
  • Giuliana Sgrena; Friendly Fire
  • John Pilger; Freedom Next Time
  • Strange Times, My Dear
  • Sumbul Ali-Karamali; The Muslim Next Door

Special Events
  • Art Reoriented
  • (re)Orientalism
  • Bootleg Islam
  • Cooking con Karimi con Castro
  • Greetings Without Flowers
  • I Come in Peace
  • Peoples Republic of Peace (PROP)
  • Told/Untold/Retold at Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art
  • The Watch List
  • The World is Ours
  • ZOOM Art Fair

Causes and Philanthropy

Former Groups and Associations

Honors
Photo Essay: Best Dressed Iranians 2010
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