Vaheed Ali Talebian (he/they) is a queer Persian-American composer, writer, and performer, and started writing for theatre at the University of Virginia from which he received his B.A.s in Arts Administration and Economics. He then received his M.F.A. at the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (Max Dreyfus Award). He has since written scores for films produced at the Virginia Film Festival, and was both a NMTC 2024 Semi-Finalist and AMTP 2024 Semifinalist alongside Alex Manaa for their show The MENA Show. His other projects include Blood Is Thicker with Kate Rankine (musical; production at The University of Virginia; Makers Ensemble Intimate Artist Night); Dino Nuggets Are Gay (play), La Resistenza with Yunhye Park (musical, produced in South Korea in 2022), Frank ‘n Me (20 minute musical, produced at the New York Public Library), Another Cousin’s Wedding with Alex Manaa (20 minute musical, produced at the Tank’s 2024 International Human Rights Art Festival), and ‘Til Next Time (10 minute play, produced by The Village Playwrights). On the stage, Vaheed made his Off-Broadway acting debut in The Monsters of the Villa Diodati as John Polidori with Emergent TheatreWorks.