Farhad Safinia

Farhad Safinia ( Farhād Safīnīyā; born 1975) is an Iranian-American screenwriter, film/TV producer and director, best known for Apocalypto, Boss, and The Professor and the Madman. He was credited under the pseudonym P. B. Shemran in the latter.

Personal life Farhad Safinia was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1975. He left Iran with his family at the age of four to live in Paris, then London. He studied at Charterhouse and then at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied Economics. While at King's he directed and acted in a number of stage productions for the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club and other theatre companies.

After graduating, he moved to New York City, where he studied film at the New School University and at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He was also the creator, writer and executive producer of the Starz TV series Boss. He went on to direct the 2019 film, The Professor and the Madman starring Mel Gibson. He currently lives in Los Angeles.