Gurshad Shaheman is a writer, actor, director and translator of Iranian origin. He trained at the École Régionale d’Acteurs de Cannes et Marseille (ERACM) and has a master’s degree in comparative literature and translation of Persian poetry from the University of Paris VIII. Shaheman has been writing and performing in his own productions since 2012. In 2018, he premiered Il pourra toujours dire que c’est pour l’amour du prophète at the Festival d’Avignon, a show based on the stories of Middle Eastern LGBT refugees, and in 2019 founded his own company La Ligne d’Ombre. Associate artist at Les Tanneurs theatre, Shaheman premiered Silent Disco there in 2020, a citizen project involving youngsters who had fallen out with their families. In 2021, he wrote and directed Les Forteresses, a work for which he won the Librairie Théâtrale Prize and the Koltès Prize from the TNS. He also wrote Pour que les vents se lèvent – Une Orestie, staged in October 2022 at the Théâtre National de Bordeaux en Aquitaine in a production by Catherine Marnas and Nuno Cardoso. In 2023, he created Jadis, lorsque mon cœur cassa, a sound and floral installation based on the accounts of people receiving psychiatric care. He teaches at the École Régionale d’Acteurs de Cannes et Marseille, the École supérieure du Théâtre de l’Union (ESTU) Limoges, and in the Belgian offshoot of the Cours Florent in Brussels. Gurshad Shaheman is also a key figure behind Cabaret Dégenré, an annual festive encounter that started at Confluences – Maison des arts urbains in Paris before moving to Point Ephémère. His works and plays are published by Les Solitaires Intempestifs.