LEONARD KASRA
Leonard Kasra is a journalist, TV personality, producer, inventor and activist. He has been broadcasting to a global Persian speaking audience via satellite and Internet since 2003. He is the creator of satellite TV network “T2 Television”, and is the inventor of next-generation TV network titled “Javan TV”. He is the producer and host of popular TV shows like “Hollywood’s Red Carpet”, “Celebrity Show” and “Kasra: Live From USA”. He has interviewed world-renowned celebrities, artists, athletes and academics. He is best known for his unprecedented Persian language coverage of the Oscars’ Red Carpet, and interviews with world’s top celebrities like Steven Spielberg, George Clooney and David Beckham.
He is a humanitarian and a human rights activist, particularly regarding Iranian youth affairs.
In 2012, he was awarded Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his contributions and work.
EARLY LIFE:
Kasra was born in Tehran, Iran. After the revolution, his family initially moved to Los Angeles, California, and later settled in Ottawa, Canada. In Ottawa, Kasra attended Henry Monroe Elementary School, and Glebe Collegiate Institute for his secondary school.
Kasra attended the University of British Columbia (UBC), concentrating his major in Economics and International Relations, and minoring in Theatre Production. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2001. He has further studied documentary filmmaking & journalism in Vancouver Film School (VFS), and, completed post-graduate studies in Immigration Law at Ashton College.
BROADCASTING:
Shaw TV Channel: Kasra started his TV career as a volunteer production assistant with Vancouver’s Shaw TV network. He was involved in the productions of daily live showslike the Fanny Kiefer Show and the popular, Urban Rush, which set the foundation for his career in broadcasting.
Tapesh TV (PBC) Productions:
In 2003, Kasra began working as a producer/journalist at PBC Tapesh, a popular private satellite TV network based in Los Angeles. The network specialized in Western Style entertainment and content delivered to a global Persian speaking audience connected via satellite dishes, mainly the Hotbird satellite platform.
“Hollywood’s Red Carpet”:
Kasra’s first creation for PBC was a weekly show titled Hollywood’s Red Carpet, a concept and formula that had not been tried on viewers up until that time. The show required direct access to Hollywood’s major celebrities and red carpet events, which, at the time, was considered impossible to achieve, particularly for a small private network like PBC.
By the end of season 1, Hollywood’s Red Carpet hailed as the flag ship program of the network and lead to multiple production seasons. It featured interviews with a plethora of Hollywood’s elite celebrities, broadcast globally to a Persian speaking audience. It also opened the door for an entire lineup of programming based on the genre i.e. Hollywood and Western entertainment news.
One-on-one interviews with the likes of Beckham, Spielberg, Clooney, Lopez and Pitt, in addition to a long list of Iranian Americans involved in Hollywood’s inner circles—Sean Toub, Bahar Soumekh and Navid Negahban, were key factors for the overwhelming global success and appeal of the show.
Producing and Hosting Style:
Targeting Youths: Kasra’s winning strategy was to produce TV content that carefully presented the interests and desires of his audience, a much-underserved segment that were mostly bellow the age of 35.
Tapesh 2 (T2) Network:
After the success of Hollywood’s Red Carpet, Kasra proposed and spearheaded the launch of Tapesh 2– a sister network to Tapesh 1, with youth being the main target audience.
The new network was launched in spring of 2005 on DishNetwork in the U.S., and Hotbird in Europe and middle-east. T2 soon garnered a larger viewer base than its parent network. T2 also proved to be a better financial earner, outperforming the parent network in advertisement and sponsorship revenues. The socio-economic power of younger viewers was well demonstrated as a result of T2’s almost overnight success.
Javan TV ® Network:
Kasra ‘s currently working on launching his next TV network project, titled JAVAN TV or better translated from Persian as “Youth TV”. The project is a next generation advanced TV initiative, making use of latest offerings in technologies for delivering content and programming to a global audience of over 45 million viewers.
ACTIVISM VIA SATELLITE TV:
Socio-cultural impacts and Cultural Bridge:
Kasra’s unprecedented interviews were regarded as a rare cultural conduit between two otherwise estranged nations. For more than two decades, Iranian government’s intense anti-American propaganda and filtering had kept Iranians disconnected from one of their favorite cultural pastimes i.e. Hollywood. Kasra’s broadcasts, via their subject matter and unprecedented access, shattered the veil of censorship and propaganda through which the domestic Iranian audience had been forced to view “America” or “the West”.
HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITIES:
From a very early age, Kasra had a great interest in spirituality and humanitarian endeavors. Through a friend at university, he was introduced to Reiyukai, a Buddhist humanitarian organization based in Tokyo, Japan. He became a member in 1996 and by 1998 he was elected the public relations director. In 1999, Kasra was elected president of Reiyukai’s Canadian youth division, and served as under master Miyamoto untill 2001. During his time with the organization, Kasra represented Reiyukai Canada at leadership seminars and conferences in Tokyo, Japan, Lima, Peru and Sao Paolo Brazil.
Life and Spiritual Training in Japan:
In 1999, Kasra travelled to Japan to complete his first international mission at the Reiyukai headquarters in Roponge, Tokyo. He received his training at the Shakaden temple and lived at the Reyuikai dormitory. He completed his studies and training under the revered president of Reiyukai, the late Ms. Yae Hamaguchi. In 2000, Kasra attended and completed the advanced Maitreya Buddha training camp in the grand temple of Mirokusan, Japan, and lived the ascetic life in the convent along with other trainees. He has often visited Kamakura and considers it one of his favorite places on earth.
Kasra is currently studying Mazdaism.