Who is Fouad?
Who is Fouad?
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Stream 'Fouad of Nazareth'
Fouad Dakwar is a multimedia writer, performer, and 2025 Jonathan Larson Grant recipient whose subversive comedy draws on his Palestinian immigrant upbringing (with a punk-rock twist).
His semi-autobiographical musical Fouad of Nazareth is part of NAMT’s 38th Annual Festival of New Musicals, a finalist for the 2026 Kleban Prize for Librettists, and a semi-finalist for the 2025 Relentless Award.
The musical has been featured in the Playbill Songwriter Series, which described Fouad as “a darkly comic pop-punk composer on the rise.” Its concept album, recorded at the Power Station at Berklee NYC and produced by Noor Theatre with support from the Pop Culture Collaborative, is now streaming.
On-screen, Fouad wrote and performed an original song for Michael Weithorn’s 2025 Netflix film The Best You Can, starring Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick.
He is a 2026-27 Orchard Project Greenhouse Lab cohort member, 2025 Yes And… Laughter Lab Fellow, 2024-25 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, and member of the Joe’s Pub Council.
His work has been developed at Berklee NYC’s master’s program in Writing and Production for Musical Theater, Ars Nova, Goodspeed’s Writers Grove, Vineyard Arts Project, and Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor.
On-a-much-smaller-screen, Fouad’s satirical TikTok content has garnered more than 5 million likes under @notfouad.
Born in Nazareth, the laughter he evokes is Biblical.
Photograph courtesy of Dash Kolos
As Featured on & Supported By...
“Using a blend of dark comedy and pop-punk music, Dakwar deconstructs his lived experiences as a Palestinian in the 21st century.”
In My Own Words...
In My Own Words...
Photograph courtesy of my mom probably
Lights up on a Palestinian immigrant kid raised in NYC.
Ever since a neighbor lent me his iPod Nano at age 8, I’ve made it my mission to revive emo, pop-punk, and alternative rock, not just through catchy hooks, but through storytelling that’s heartfelt and seductively counter-cultural.
While my parents crooned along to the poetic ballads of Fairuz, I found myself screaming out the angsty anthems of Linkin Park, Green Day, and Fall Out Boy.
My comedic style (which I've been told is "irreverent," I'll have to look up the definition at some point) harkens back to the golden age of early 2000s web series.
Now mix all of that with a lifelong (borderline masochistic) obsession with politics, and you've got my particular brand of subversive musical dark comedy.
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