WAALM as the awarding body of Persian Golden Lioness Awards has conducted two notably successful events in which over 50 celebrities and laureates have been awarded, among whom there has been many Persian compatriots as well as non-Persians who have significantly contributed to the Persian culture. WAALM was formed by Prof. Dorbayani and his spouse Dr. Marjan Abdi in 2005.

WAALM hereby proudly announces the award winners of 2008 in category of Dramatic Arts, who shall receive the Persian Golden Lioness statuette OR Diploma & Gold Medal of Excellence.

Category of Arts - Dramatic Art
- Maz Jobrani, Best Actor & Comedian
- Neysham Khazenie, Best Persian Dancer
- Patrick Monahan, Best Stand-up
- Reza Badiyi, Lifetime Achievement
- Lee Majors, Honourary Lifetime Achievement
- Dr. Ahmad Baharloo, Best Contemporary Docudrama

Maz Jobrani is an Iranian - American comedian who is part of the 'Axis of Evil' comedy group. The group appeared on a comedy special on Comedy Central . Jobrani has also appeared in numerous films, television shows, on radio and in comedy clubs. His filmography includes roles in The Interpreter, Friday After Next and Dragonfly. He has since made appearances on shows like The Colbert Report, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Late show with Craig Ferguson, and regularly performs at top comedy clubs in CA & NY such as The Comedy Store.

Neysham Khazenie has played piano since age six and danced classical ballet since age seven. She studied and has performed Persian classical dance since age ten. She is now a sixteen-year-old student at the Levine School of Music and Washington Ballet. Neysham has been in High Honors program and on the Levine’s President’s List. She is very active in classic western ballet as well as Persian classic dance. She has performed in many major venues such as Kennedy center,Miller Theater in NY. She has studied ballet at Washington Ballet and Persian classic & sufi with Shahrok Moshkin Ghalam, Bahareh Sardari and Banafsheh Sayad. Neysham is the youngest ever awardee of WAALM Academy.

Patrick Monahan started off doing stand up as a child on the Irish/Iranian/Geordie circuit before going professional as an adult on the British comedy circuit – where he has performed in packaged shows and solo shows across the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, United Arab Emirates, Barbados and the Caribbean.

Patrick has appeared on BBC 1, 2 & 3, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky 1, and other various Cable channels as a Guest comedian, actor or presenter. Shows including: BBC 1’s ‘Armstrong & Miller sketch show’, BBC 2’s ‘Comedy Map of Britain’, ITV 1’s travel show ‘Playing Away’ and C5’s topical weekly entertainment show ‘That’s so last week!” As well as performing stand up comedy, he has also hosted many major corporate events including: Veterans Day 2008 at Trafalgar Square London and The SEB 150 year anniversary in Luxembourg. Also he does regular studio warm up for many TV shows including: BBC1’s ‘Friday night with Jonathan Ross’, ITV’s ‘Jasper Carrot’s Golden Balls’ and C4’s ‘The Paul O’Grady Show’.

Reza Badiyi was born inTehran, Iran on April 17, 1930 Badiyi is well known for directing episodes of many popular and distinct television series.Early in his career, he directed episodes of: Mission: Impossible , The Six Million Dollar Man, Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford File, Baretta, Police Squad, Starsky & Hutch, Cagney & Lacey.

His credits also include developing the memorable opening montages for: The Marry Tyler Moor Show. Badiyi also directed the definitive 'fashion show' sequence of the third season of the popular 'Doris Day Show' and in the 1980s and 1990s, he directed episodes of: Baywatch, Baywatch Nights, Nikita, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Falcon Crest,Sliders, Mortal Kombats, and Conquest.

He also directed and produced several movies among which his 2006 ‘The Way Back Home’ staring:Michael Houston King, Julie Harris, Tessie Santiago, and Mina Badiyi.

Lee Majors, a football star at Eastern Kentucky State College, Lee Majors came to Los Angeles armed with a physical education degree and possessed with a vague desire to break into films.

He worked as a park recreation director for the City of Los Angeles before entering show business in 1963. Majors was promoted as 'the New James Dean', though he personally aspired to become a new Steve McQueen or Paul Newman (he also retained his permit to work as a recreation director, just in case the world wasn't holding its breath for a new Dean, McQueen or Newman).

Majors achieved stardom on his own merits in a variety of television series, the most recent of which was 1992's Raven. His best-known TV roles included Heath Barkley on The Big Vally (1965-69), bionic Steve Austin on The SixMillion Dollar Man (1973-78) and stunt man Colt Seavers on The Fall Guy (1981-86).

In addition, he has headlined a number of made-for-TV movies, essaying the old Gary Cooper part in the 1991 sequel to High Noon and portraying U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in a 1976 biopic. For several years, Lee Majors was married to actress Farrah Fawcett. WAALM is honouring Lee for the best memories of 70s and for his role to assist that generation dare to IMAGINE!

Dr. Ahmad Baharloo, received a BA in Economics from 'Melli University' in Tehran, and in September 13 1973, his American journey started. In 1977 after receiving a Master degree in Film and Television, he made a feature film, called 'The End Of Childhood', about young Iranians coming to the U.S with dreams to fulfill.

He started journalism as a Sports writer in Tehran’s Mossavar Weekly Magazine while at college and then became the Sports editor. He continued until 1973 when he went to the U.S. He started his Radio career in the Voice Of America - VOA on November 22nd 1979, and expanded it to TV on October 18th 1996. He has served VOA to this date on almost every capacity, from translator to announcer, MC, anchorman, programmer, managing editor, editor in chief, deputy chief, and in 1994 he started the radio programme of “Roundtable With You” a live call-in program from Washington in Persian. Little over two years later he started the first live TV broadcast from Voice Of America in Washington D.C. On June 3rd 2006 “Roundtable With You” became a daily program.

It was on its 10th anniversary in October 2006 that “Roundtable With You” received the Persian Golden Lioness Awards from the World Academy of Arts, Literature, and Media – WAALM in Budapest. Ahmad also received an Honorary Doctorate in the same year from International Further Studies Institute – IFSI in Hungary for his outstanding endeavor to expand human horizon and public social awareness. Ahmad's contemporary docudrama file 'The End of Childhood' will be screened for the first time at WAALM Awards of 2008.