Comedian Ahmed Ahmed Set To Host Palm Springs International Comedy Festival Awards Tonight

Award-winning Egyptian American actor/comedian Ahmed Ahmed will host the 2024 PSICF Comedy Awards taking place during the Palm Springs International Comedy Festival (PSICF) on September 21st at Hotel Zoso in downtown Palm Springs.

“We're excited to welcome Ahmed Ahmed back to the desert as the host of the PSICF Comedy Awards,” jokes PSICF founder/president Paul Cruz. “Seriously though, Ahmed is known for his observational comedy on the theme of racism and his involvement in this year's fest underscores our commitment to diversity and tolerance.”

Additionally, PSICF will present the special live performance 'Ahmed Ahmed and Friends,' on Saturday, September 5th at 8pm, as well as his premiere his new comedy special It Only Takes One Of Us on Sunday, September 29 at 8:45 pm, both at the Mary Pickford Theatre. 

PSICF Hall of Fame Awards will be presented to some of the most recognized names in the entertainment industry, including Cybill Shepherd, Tom Arnold, Mo Collins (MAD TV, Parks & Recreation, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) presented by Kathy Griffin, Anne Ramsay (Mad About You, A League Of Their Own), Debra Wilson (MAD TV) and Will Sasso (Apple TV's Acapulco, The Three Stooges), all of whom will be in attendance at the awards ceremony. Previous PSICF Comedy Hall of Fame recipients have included Saturday Night Live cast members Laraine Newman and Jon Lovitz, as well as acclaimed producer, writer Alan Zweibel.

Additionally, transgender Latina comedian Roz Hernandez will be honored with the PSICF Diversity in Comedy Award. Hernandez brings her comedic wit to the Hulu series Living for the Dead, executive produced by Oscar-nominated actress Kristen Stewart, and ALSO hosts the weekly podcast Ghosted!.

Just announced, LA-based comedian, actor, and writer Zach Noe Towers is set to receive the 2024 PSICF Breakthrough in Comedy Award. He is featured in season three of Netflix's Dear White People or hosts the E! series Nightly Pop and Dating #NoFilter. Towers entered the comedy scene in 2018 when he was named one of Time Out's Comics to Watch, as well as one of the New Faces of Comedy at the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. His new sex-based SiriusXM show After Hours with Zach Noe Towers can be heard on Netflix is a Joke radio (channel 93).

Jonathan Kite (2 Broke Girls, Dad Stop Embarrassing Me) will be presented with the 2024 PSICF Best Male Stand-up Comedian Award, while Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm) will receive the PSICF Spotlight in Comedy Award.

Beloved comedian Luenell (Hacks, Lopez) will be named PSICF's Comedian of the Year for 2024.

Also on September 21st, Golden Globe winning actress Karen Sharpe-Kramer and daughters actress Kat Kramer and filmmaker Jennifer Kramer will present The PSICF Stanley Kramer Mad World Comedy Award to filmmaker Nicholas Eliopoulos for his documentary Celebrating Laughter: The Life and Films of Colin Higgins. Produced by Dolly Parton, narrated by Cybill Shepherd, and includes Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Shirley MacLaine and Goldie Hawn. The award previously went to the George Gallo directed Robert De Niro comedy film, The Comeback Trail, which also starred Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones and Eddie Griffin, last year's PSICF Comedian of the Year Award recipient. Additionally, Stanley Kramer's It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World will be screened on September 29th in honor of the legendary director's birthday, for which the PSICF award was named after.

The Palm Springs International Comedy Festival (PSICF) is a premier annual event celebrating the art of comedy in all its forms. Featuring a diverse array of performances, films, stand-up, sketch comedy, and improv, PSICF attracts top-tier comedic talent and filmmakers from around the globe. This year's films include Brandon Tamburri's Plan B, starring John Heder, Jamie Lee, Shannon Elizabeth, and Tom Berenger; Caden Douglas' Mother Father Sister Brother Frank with Mindy Cohn and Enrico Colantoni; Jeremy Warner's Villains Inc. starring Colin Mochrie and Jeff  Davis of Whose Line Is It Anyway?; Michael Schlesinger's Rock & Doris (Try to) Write A Movie with Marilu Henner (Man On The Moon, Taxi) and actor/director Joe Regalbuto (Murphy Brown, Veronica's Closet); and pilots starring cast members from The Daily Show, Orange Is The New Black, RuPaul's Drag Race, NYPD Blue, and more!

The festival is committed to nurturing new talent while honoring comedy legends, making it a significant influencer in the comedy world.

PSICF runs from September 21 – October 6, 2024. The Palm Springs International Comedy Festival Awards will be held on September 21st at Hotel Zoso (150 S. Indian Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92262). (red carpet arrivals begin at 4pm, followed by cocktail reception at 5 pm, award ceremony to begin at 6 pm, followed by after party.)   Screenings and live comedy events will be held at The Mary Pickford Theater (36850 Pickfair Street Cathedral City, CA 92234). For more information about the festival, including tickets and program details, please visit www.psicf.org.

About Ahmed Ahmed: Ahmed Ahmed has been seen on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, has two Showtime comedy specials, Vince Vaughn‘s Wild West Comedy Show, WEEDS, Swingers, You Don't Mess With The Zohan and Iron Man. He made his directorial debut with his award-winning documentary called Just Like Us, which premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival and had a life on Netflix, Starz, Showtime and other various streaming platforms. The documentary garnered him an invite to the White House to have dinner with President Barack Obama. 

Following the documentary, he was cast by Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley to star in TBS's Sullivan and Son, which aired for three seasons. Currently Ahmed can be seen in the recently debuted documentary Too Soon on Vice TV and is developing several tv shows and films. 

Currently he has his latest comedy special coming out through Comedy Dynamics October 1st on several platforms titled It Only Takes One Of Us, the first ever American comedy special filmed in Cairo, Egypt. 

Photos Courtesy of PSICF

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