Shahjehan is a voice-over artist, actor, and musician based in Boston. He had no idea that even though it took him a year to learn how to tune a guitar that he'd eventually tour the world in a rock band, that a producer from Audible would hear him on NPR and ask him to do an Audiobook, or that he'd get to awkwardly stand near Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jonah Hill for 10 hours during a pandemic.
He is the current host of the award-winning KING OF THE WORLD PODCAST, exploring his life as a Pakistani American Muslim in the 20 years since 9/11. You can also hear him as "Matteo" on RomComPods Season 1, which debuted at #1 on Apple Fiction Podcasts, watch him as Humayun in the first-ever virtual staged reading of Rajiv Joseph's Guards at the Taj, and listen to his internationally acclaimed South Asian American punk band THE KOMINAS (as featured in RollingStone, The Guardian, PAPER, CNN, Mic), anywhere you can get the internet.
Shaj can usually be found in his home studio (okay his closet) as a staff narrator for ShortForm Audio, putting together musical collaborations like Chaand Sequence (featured in the digital exhibit American Muslim Futures at the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art and Architecture), or on the road as the newest member of Providence’s Garage Rock Legends RAVI SHAVI.
This website is a growing directory of people of color who work in audio around the world. You’ll find editors, hosts, writers, producers, sound designers, engineers, project managers, musicians, reporters, and content strategists with varied experience from within the industry and in related fields.
It’s both a place for employers to find POC candidates, and a place where POC can find each other for meetups, collaborations, advice and so on, which means that not everyone you’ll see on here is actively looking for a job.
To our POC family: we see you and we stand with you. Let’s continue to support each other.
If you’re an employer, we need to talk.
*clears throat*
While recruiting diverse candidates is a great first step, it’s not going to be enough if we want the industry to look and sound meaningfully different in the future. Let us be clear: this isn’t about numbers alone. This is about getting the respect that people of color—and people of different faiths, abilities, ages, socioeconomic statuses, educational backgrounds, gender identities, and sexual orientation—deserve. So before you get started, here are the Terms of Service:
I will pay employees a living wage.
I will consider the ways in which my workspace might be hostile to people of color and find concrete ways to support their contributions and wellbeing.
I will continually reflect on how my networks, taste, curiosity, comfort and values are shaped by my race, class, gender, where I grew up, the media I consume, and the fact that we live in a white supremacist culture. This takes time. It will require vulnerability, and a commitment to ongoing learning.
I understand that this directory is not ZipRecruiter, and that expanding my hiring practices requires that I dedicate some time to engaging with potential candidates in a deeper way than simply scanning their years of industry experience.
If you are unable to commit to these terms, please click “I do not accept.”