LAFPI

World Premiere engagement of a new show.

WHEN: Saturdays at 8:00 pm.
CONSUMER ADVISORY: Suggested for audiences age 15 to Adult.
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Subtitled: A Series of Stories About A Girl on the Run, Layla Rumi’s show Nice Iranian Girl is an odyssey like none other.

During the Iran/Iraq War, in her childhood years in Tehran in Iran’s Islamic Republic, she huddles in a basement with her grandparents while Saddam Hussein’s aircraft bombard the neighborhood. She makes her way to London and safety, until she finds herself homeless at 15. Eventually, though still underage, she manages to bluff her way into a job at an exclusive high-end London nightclub, entering into the milieu of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll.

Having fallen in love with the American TV shows she’s watched for so many hours in London, she decides to head for Hollywood to seek her fortune. Her dream job would be to be a VJ on MTV.

Soon after arriving in Los Angeles, she’s hired as a correspondent on Al Gore’s Current TV until the exotic beauty runs afoul of her new employer’s corporate culture when she poses for Maxim magazine. Landing on her feet, she appears on an impressive 275 episodes of Attack of the Show, a program on the G4 cable channel (with a target audience among gamers). She subsequently appears on 35 episodes of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew (on MTV at last, co-hosting with her girlhood idol Mario Lopez.). She serves as correspondent for series including The Best Damn Sports Show Period; Big Morning Buzz; The Insider; and award events on the TV Guide Channel.

With a vibrant, outgoing personality, a beautiful face and an alluring figure, Layla Rumi conquered America (in particular young male TV watchers) and became a naturalized American citizen. She went from wrenching poverty to abundance. She refused to hear the word “No” along the way. With her professional dreams coming true, there was still a vacancy in her heart. There would be no turning back. She’d never be able to visit her girlhood home again; Iran had put her on a death list because she posed in a bikini for Maxim. Could she find complete fulfillment as a woman in America and Hollywood?

Her tale is a classic American story: the immigrant who arrives in the USA under challenging circumstances, and through dint of hard work and her own gifts (including exceptional academic gifts, musical talent and knockout beauty) becomes a success.
Richard Embardo directs. The acclaimed helmer’s previous credits include Tiannanmen Annie, Miles From Myself, Carnival Knowledge, Henry V, Growing Up With Uncle Milty, Bully for Me, If Christ Is the Answer What’s the Question, Tracers, The World of Mirth and more. He is a graduate of USC.

Nice Iranian Girl is the story of the adventures of a beautiful woman and her challenges in far-flung cities in the world. It’s the sort of narrative that will never go out of style with audiences anywhere.