Marena Riyad is an award winning Palestinian-American whose humor moves between heartbreak and seduction. Born in a refugee camp in the West Bank and “kidnapped” to America at ten, she turns displacement, desire, and the absurdity of belonging into dark, magnetic comedy. The self-proclaimed Femme Fatale of the Middle East, Marena refuses to reduce Palestinian stories to trauma, instead bringing a sharp, refreshingly pessimistic take on love, identity, and the complicated business of finding home.

Her work moves between stand-up, theatre and acting, blending vulnerability, humor and defiance. From the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to clubs and theaters across the world, she makes women laugh and men pine — often at the same time.