In My Own Words
In My Own Words
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My "origin story" starts when I was eight years old, and my neighbor lent me his iPod Nano. While my parents sang along to the poetic ballads of Fairuz, I was screaming out the angsty anthems of Linkin Park, Green Day, and Fall Out Boy.
Ever since then, I’ve been on a mission to revive emo, pop-punk, and alt-rock— not just with catchy hooks, but through storytelling that’s heartfelt, irreverent, and seductively counter-cultural.
My comedy harkens back to the golden age of YouTube web series and is probably a direct result of staying up past my bedtime to watch Adult Swim (please don't tell my parents).
Mix all of that with a lifelong— borderline masochistic— obsession with politics, and you've got my particular brand of subversive dark comedy.
In Case You Prefer Third Person...
In Case You Prefer Third Person...
Fouad Dakwar is a multimedia artist whose subversive comedy channels his Palestinian-American immigrant upbringing– all with a punk-rock twist.
His semi-autobiographical musical, Fouad of Nazareth, has been featured in the Noor Theatre Highlight Reading Series and the Playbill Songwriter Series, which aptly described him as “a darkly comic pop-punk composer on the rise.”
The piece was developed in Berklee NYC’s Writing and Production for Musical Theater Master’s program, was a semi-finalist for the 2025 Relentless Musical Award, and received a residency at the 2025 Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove at Goodspeed.
Fouad is a 2024–25 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, 2025 Yes And... Laughter Lab Fellow, 2023 Jonathan Larson Grant finalist, and a proud member of the Joe’s Pub Council.
Born in Nazareth, the laughter he evokes is Biblical.
Photograph courtesy of Dash Kolos
“Using a blend of dark comedy and pop-punk music, Dakwar deconstructs his lived experiences as a Palestinian in the 21st century.”
"Fouad grew up attending protests with his parents, who are Palestinian citizens of Israel, and began writing musicals in high school and found in the medium a popular form in which he could connect people to social justice issues."
"The young man attempts to humorously deal with his reality and the contradictions of the emotions that overwhelm him on the ground.
Perhaps the performance of Dakwar, who participated in the show and composed the lyrics and music, helped inspire and encourage the performances of the other actors and musicians in the hall, whose audience was diverse in age and background, reflecting the diversity of New York City."
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