| Paul Elia | |
|---|---|
 Elia in 2014 | |
| Born | February 23, 1988 Southfield, Michigan, U.S. |
| Medium |
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| Years active | 2009–present |
| Genres | |
| Subject(s) | |
| Website | watchpaulelia |
Paul Elia (born February 23, 1988) is an Iraqi-Assyrian American comedian and actor from Detroit, MI. In 2024, his debut comedy special Detroit Player was released on YouTube. [1]
Elia was born in the city of San Diego, California on February 23, 1988, to Iraqi Assyrian immigrant parents. His family moved to Southfield in Metro Detroit in 1994. Growing up, his mother was a cashier and owner of a liquor store in Clinton Township, while his father worked as a butcher for various supermarkets. [2] He was initially two classes shy of graduating from Wayne State University with a bachelor's in English and had been hoping to apply to law school before deciding to become a comedian. After his first professional role on Detroit 1-8-7, he moved to Los Angeles, California. [3]
Elia arrived in Hollywood in 2011 and immediately hit the ground running – creating and producing his own projects with money he saved while working late nights at a nightclub. Although he didn't have any solid Hollywood representation, he was still managing to audition for various TV shows and films from his savvy networking skills (Elia claims he auditioned for over 400 projects before booking his first high paying job: A National commercial for Honda). He soon began to see an influx of roles in television and film. When asked by The Arab American News about his struggles, Elia said “You have to take big risks. The people who take big risks are the ones who make it...Of course you're going to be scared, but what you do with that defines you as a human being.” [4]
Throughout his career, Elia has been vocal about his Iraqi and especially his Assyrian heritage, and the issues pressing his community in wake of violence in indigenous Assyrian lands in Iraq. He has also been vocal about the divisions that the Assyrian community faces, including among Chaldeans and Syriacs. [5]
Elia has previously cited his family (specifically his mother) as being one of the greatest influences in his life, due to her experiences in Iraq and her hard-working lifestyle in one of Michigan's many impoverish neighborhoods. In regard to his comedy, Elia has cited some of his closest partners, Matt Rife and Bassem Youssef, as people who have helped to strengthen his comedy career, including helping him to produce Detroit Player. [6]
On February 26, 2024, Elia officially announced his engagement to Eliane Ortiz Puche, a Venezuelan oral surgeon, on his Instagram. [7]
Elia is currently based in Los Angeles, California. He has three brothers, who take professions in law, neurosurgery, and mortgage banking.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | CornerStore | Hassan Akrawi | |
| 2011 | Holly's Holiday | Darryl | |
| Exit 33 | Dax | ||
| Bad to the Bone | Jesus Hernandez | ||
| 2012 | Divorce Invitation | Sam | |
| 2013 | Only in L.A. | Hassan | |
| 2014 | Love in the Time of Monsters | Jim | |
| The Brittany Murphy Story | Caller Director | ||
| 2016 | Dirty | Detective Jackson | |
| In the Same Garden | Anton | ||
| 2017 | 2016 | Benton | |
| The Landlord | Heckler | ||
| 2018 | Stillwater | Willie | |
| 2020 | 2 Minutes of Fame | Uber Man | Uncredited role |
| 2022 | Who Killed Cooper Dunn? | Willie |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Skill Crane | Eugene | |
| The Hill | Joey | ||
| 2010 | Scourge | Northmen Guard 2 | |
| Defying Deletion: The Fight over Iraq's Nineveh Plains | Terrorist | ||
| 2011 | Dick and Brain | Coffee Shop Owner | Episode 1 |
| Bluetooths for Better Living | Homeless Eddie | ||
| Detroit 1-8-7 | FBI Man #2 | Episode: "Blackout", Recurring cast member | |
| The Finalist | Harold Levy | ||
| 2012 | The People Who Were Never There | The Man | |
| 2013 | Vegas | AD | Episode: "Two of a Kind" |
| A Friend | Ralphy | ||
| Bad News | Mark | ||
| ABC Discovers: Los Angeles Talent Showcase | |||
| Nameless | Bullet #3 | ||
| 2014 | Mixology | Kevin | Episode: "Liv and Jim" |
| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Diaz | Episode: "Ragtag" | |
| Mistresses | Delivery Man | Episode: "Friends with Benefits" | |
| The Yellow Attic | Yusef Thabit | ||
| Mentor | Paul | ||
| 2014-2016 | Absolutely Jason Stuart | Himself | Recurring guest |
| 2015 | Xanadu | Joel | |
| Serial Scoop Now | Himself | Episode: "6th Annual ISAs Red Carpet Show - Part 5" | |
| The Perils of Posting | Himself | ||
| 2016 | Lady Dynamite | Brian | Episode: "I Love You" |
| Open House on Beverly | Mr. Kashat | ||
| Knives | Ray | ||
| No Other Like You | Him | ||
| 2017 | Add-TV | Himself | Episode: "Episode 1.1" |
| Sremm Break | Trevor Norton | ||
| Major Crimes | Charles Gray | Episode: "Shockwave: Part 2" | |
| 2018 | Broken Minds | Samuel | |
| Dry City | Seth | ||
| Laff Mobb's Laff Tracks | Himself | Episode: "The Inappropriate Barber" | |
| Sh#t I Love with Jason Stuart | Himself | Episode: "Paul Elia" | |
| 2018-2020 | Conan | Various roles | Recurring cast, seasons 8-10 |
| 2019 | TMI Hollywood | Himself | Episode: "Paul Elia Hosts TMI Hollywood" |
| 2020 | Doubting Thomas | Jon | |
| Ramy | Kalim | Episode: "Miakhalifa.mov" | |
| Tournament of Laughs | Himself | Episode: "And A Round of 32 We Go, Part 1" | |
| 2021 | Cultural Blasphemy | Himself | Episode: "John Mayer is Overrated" & "The Titanic Was NOT Iconic" |
| 2022 | We Need to Talk about America | Himself | |
| 2023 | All AT Once | ||
| Paul Elia: Detroit Player | Himself | Comedy special |
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Action on Film Award | Breakout Action Star – Male | Bad to the Bone | Nominated |
| 2015 | Indie Series Awards | Best Writing (Comedy) | Mentor | |
Assyrians are an indigenous ethnic group native to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians descend directly from Ancient Mesopotamians such as ancient Assyrians and Babylonians. Modern Assyrians may culturally self-identify as Syriacs, Chaldeans, or Arameans for religious, geographic, and tribal identification.
Alqosh is a town in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq, a sub-district of the Tel Kaif District situated 45 km north of the city of Mosul.
The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic particular church in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church, and is headed by the Chaldean Patriarchate. Employing in its liturgy the East Syriac Rite in the Syriac dialect of the Aramaic language, it is part of Syriac Christianity. Headquartered in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows, Baghdad, Iraq, since 1950, it is headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako. In 2010, it had a membership of 490,371, of whom 310,235 (63.27%) lived in the Middle East.
Iraqi Assyrians are an ethnic and linguistic minority group, indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia. They are defined as Assyrians residing in the country of Iraq, or members of the Assyrian diaspora who are of Iraqi-Assyrian heritage. They share a common history and ethnic identity, rooted in shared linguistic, cultural and religious traditions, with Assyrians in Iran, Turkey and Syria, as well as with the Assyrian diaspora elsewhere. A significant number have emigrated to the United States, notably to the Detroit and Chicago; a sizeable community is also found in Sydney, Australia.
The Assyrian homeland, Assyria, refers to the homeland of the Assyrian people within which Assyrian civilisation developed, located in their indigenous Upper Mesopotamia. The territory that forms the Assyrian homeland is, similarly to the rest of Mesopotamia, currently divided between present-day Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. In Iran, the Urmia Plain forms a thin margin of the ancestral Assyrian homeland in the north-west, and the only section of the Assyrian homeland beyond the Mesopotamian region. The majority of Assyrians in Iran currently reside in the capital city, Tehran.
Assyrian Americans refers to individuals of ethnic Assyrian ancestry born in or residing within the United States. Assyrians are an indigenous Middle Eastern ethnic group native to Mesopotamia in West Asia who descend from their ancient counterparts, directly originating from the ancient indigenous Mesopotamians of Akkad and Sumer who first developed the independent civilisation in northern Mesopotamia that would become Assyria in 2600 BC. Modern Assyrians often culturally self-identify as Syriacs, Chaldeans, or Arameans for religious and tribal identification. The first significant wave of Assyrian immigration to the United States was due to the Sayfo genocide in the Assyrian homeland in 1914–1924.
Iraqi Americans are American citizens of Iraqi descent. As of 2015, the number of Iraqi Americans is around 145,279, according to the United States Census Bureau.
The Christians of Iraq are considered to be one of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world.
Chaldean Catholics, also known as Chaldeans, Chaldo-Assyrians or Assyro-Chaldeans, are ethnic Assyrian adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which originates from the historic Church of the East.
British Assyrians are British people of Assyrian descent or Assyrians who have British citizenship.
Assyrian nationalism is a movement of the Assyrian people that advocates for independence or autonomy within the regions they inhabit in northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, northwestern Iran, and southeastern Turkey.
The Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad, or simply the Chaldean Patriarchate, is the official title held by the primate of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The patriarchate is based in the Cathedral of Mary Mother of Sorrows, Baghdad, Iraq. The current patriarch is Louis Raphaël I Sako. He is assisted by the archbishop of Erbil Shlemon Warduni and the Auxiliary Bishop of Baghdad Basel Yaldo. Its cathedral is the Church of Mary Mother of Sorrows in Baghdad, Iraq.
Thomas Hanna, known by his stage name Timz, is an Iraqi-American rapper of Assyrian descent best known for his song "Iraq". His debut album is entitled Open for Business.
Tel Keppe is a town in northern Iraq. It is located in the Nineveh Governorate, less than 8 mi (13 km) northeast of Mosul.
The Detroit metropolitan area has one of the largest concentrations of people of Middle Eastern origin, including Arabs and Chaldo-Assyrians in the United States. As of 2007 about 300,000 people in Southeast Michigan traced their descent from the Middle East. Dearborn's sizeable Arab community consists largely of Lebanese people who immigrated for jobs in the auto industry in the 1920s, and of more recent Yemenis and Iraqis. In 2010 the four Metro Detroit counties had at least 200,000 people of Middle Eastern origin. Bobby Ghosh of TIME said that some estimates gave much larger numbers. From 1990 to 2000 the percentage of people speaking Arabic in the home increased by 106% in Wayne County, 99.5% in Macomb County, and 41% in Oakland County.
Andrew Cameron Schulz is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster. In addition to his stand-up, he is known for his work on MTV2's Guy Code and its two spinoffs, the Flagrant podcast with Akaash Singh, and The Brilliant Idiots podcast. Schulz's first Netflix special, Schulz Saves America, premiered on December 17, 2020.
Matthew Steven Rife is an American comedian and actor. Rife is best known for his self-produced comedy specials Only Fans (2021), Matthew Steven Rife (2023) and Walking Red Flag (2023), as well as his 2023 Netflix special Natural Selection, and previous recurring role on the sketch improv comedy and rap show Wild 'n Out.
The Chaldean flag is an Assyrian separatist ethnic flag designated for Chaldean-identifying Assyrians. The flag was created by Amer Hanna Fatuhi (Shendaj), an artist and self-proclaimed historian who currently resides in the Metro Detroit area, where a considerable portion of Assyrians of the Chaldean Catholic Church live.