Born and raised in Chicago -- with a decade-long detour in Saudi Arabia -- before settling in the San Francisco Bay Area, Zaki Hasan is a professor of communication and media studies co-founder of Mr. Boy Productions, an LA-based independent media company. A media scholar and critic for more than twenty years, Zaki is a member of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle whose film reviews and analyses have appeared in HuffPost, Philly Weekly, Fandor, and Sequart, and he is co-host of the MovieFilm Podcast, Nostalgia Theater, and Diffused Congruence: The American Muslim Experience. He is also co-author of Quirk Books' Geek Wisdom: The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture, as well as a contributing author to books on the Star Wars, Planet of the Apes, and Blade Runner franchises, and has appeared as an expert panelist on Al Jazeera America's The Stream and HuffPost Live.