Shabnam Rezaei
(she/her)
NYU Alumni Changemaker of the Year
(STERN ’01)
Changemaker Shabnam Rezaei
Co-Founder and President, Big Bad Boo Studios and Oznoz
Visionary social entrepreneur and children’s television creator—transforming the industry with groundbreaking, award-winning shows that champion diverse characters, fostering a profound connection with viewers worldwide.
In 2001, recently graduated from Stern, Iranian-American Shabnam Rezaei was living a Wall Street life. She had a job with a financial software company, an apartment in downtown Manhattan, and a promising career trajectory. Then 9/11 happened. “Suddenly people who looked like me were being demonized,” Rezaei says. The fear and violence that her family had experienced in Iran flared up again, this time in her adopted city.
Disturbed by the flood of negative depictions of Middle Easterners, Rezaei launched an online magazine celebrating Iranian traditions, PersianMirror. It was a counternarrative to the divisive rhetoric of the “war on terror,” and its impact resonated for Rezaei. “I started thinking,” she says, “about how to reach more people—especially children.” She entered—and won—the Stern Business Plan competition, producing a first-of-its-kind DVD cartoon featuring an Iranian protagonist. It streamed internationally. Rezaei was hooked. She put her financial software career aside and set her sights on the biggest possible market: television.
Despite the initial resistance of an industry averse to nuance, Rezaei has become a singular force for representation in children’s television. Her show, The Bravest Knight—winner of the industry’s prestigious GLAAD Award—is the first children’s series featuring an LGBTQ+ lead. Another show, 16 Hudson—featuring a Haitian adoptee with two dads—has won multiple MIPCOM awards for diversifying television. Yet another, 1001 Nights, is airing on major networks in 80 countries and 15 languages. But for all her accolades, Rezaei says that it’s the connection with viewers that matters most. “I’m proudest,” she says, “whenever a kid tells me that they’ve seen themselves in one of my characters.”
2024 NYU Alumni Changemakers
Vision. Perseverance. Belief.
These are the qualities that unite this class of NYU Alumni Changemakers—a selected group of NYU alumni whose accomplishments help build a better world.
Chosen by the NYU Alumni Association Board from crowdsourced nominations, these alumni are the best of the best: entrepreneurs and visionaries who save lives, reduce suffering, and bring hope to the marginalized.
Ambition for private gain is one thing. But ambition with the public good in mind?
That’s how you make change.
The 2024 NYU Alumni Changemakers are: Alexia Akbay, Marjuan Canady, Alvin Irby, Peter Marks, Joseph Pantaleo and Shabnam Rezaei.
