Jalal  "Jay" Jonroy, Writer/Director/Producer.

Short biography:

A dual American and British citizen, multi-lingual Jay Jonroy now lives and works in New York and Paris.  He is fluent in English, French and Kurdish as well as some Persian, Arabic and Portuguese. 

A WGA (Writers Guild of America) member, and a former student of the UCLA Film School and AFI and  USC screenwriting courses, Jay was born in Iraqi-Kurdistan. Made stateless in exile since he was a teenager, Jay has studied and worked in London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Rio, Paris and New York. Either through scholarships or paid for by his own work, he has studied at the universities of Leicester, Imperial College, London,  Paris Sorbonne, and UCLA and USC film schools in Los Angeles.  

After a First Class Honors University degree, to the dismay of his professors, Jay declined a scholarship to study for a PhD at Churchill College, Cambridge University, in favor of a Masters Degree at Imperial College/London University so he could live in London- the cosmopolitan, international city of diverse cultures and arts.

In London, Jay studied Creative Photography. Worked briefly as a fashion photographer in London and Paris. Discovered Koo Stark before her royal romance with Prince Andrew. Then, he studied "Acting, Movement and Speech" at the City Literary Institute. Years later, in New York while married to actress Olga/Layla Alexandre, he coached student actors for their final year scenes and plays at  the renowned, Circle in the Square Theater on Broadway. 

An amateur musician, Jay collects ethnic music and has been listed as a Patron of the Arts at the World Music Institute in New York, www.worldmusicinstitute.org.  

Two members of Jay’s family, a younger brother and a brother-in-law, went missing in Iraq. Later, their remains were found in Saddam’s/Ba’athists’ mass graves. Jay was obliged to abandon his film projects unfinished for about ten years to help his family escape Saddam's genocidal campaigns against Kurds. Some of those horrors are reflected in his first feature film, DAVID & LAYLA. 

Jay supports Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Institute Kurde de Paris and the World Music Institute.  He writes about and promotes the films, music and cultures of oppressed nations including Tibet, Iran and Kurdistan.  

A cinephile of both East and West cinema, Jay is an Internet film critic of World Cinema at www.newrozfilms.com, as well as a writer on human rights and a free-lance supporter of the Human Rights International Film Festival.                                                   

Many of his siblings & relatives now live as refugees in diaspora in England, Holland, Germany, and France. His first feature, ‘DAVID & LAYLA,’ is a gift, a ‘comic relief’ to the oppressed ‘LAYLA’ women of the world. It’s dedicated to the memory of the war victim members of his family. 

Long biography:

Received First Class Honors B.Sc, D.I.C, and M.Sc Degrees from respectively Leicester University, Imperial College, and London University, studying combined sciences, economics, sociology and cybernetics. Also, he received Diploma Superieur in French Language and French Civilization at Sorbonne University- Paris. He studied at both UCLA & USC Film Schools in Los Angeles.

After several years in marketing, promotion and advertising films in London went back to college to study Creative Photography. Worked briefly as a fashion photographer in London. Discovered Koo Stark before her royal romance with Prince Andrew. Jay studied "Acting, Movement and Speech" at the City Literary Institute in London.

Moved to San Francisco as a photographer and later to Los Angeles where he studied at UCLA Film School – Adult Program. At UCLA Film School, Jay assisted in the preparation of "Acting Without Agony" the class manuscript, authored by the late Don Richards, with Foreword by Helen Hayes (winner of two OSCARs, three TONYs and an EMMY). "Acting Without Agony" first published by Simon & Schuster in 1988 is available at Amazon as a collector's item.

Jay also completed the Advanced Practicum in Screenwriting at USC where he studied under such veteran screenwriters as Stewart Stern (REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE), Julius Epstein (CASABLANCA)...

At AFI - American Film Institute in LA - Jay attended in an intensive Workshop with resident guest director David Lean (GREAT EXPECTATIONS, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA...) screening and analyzing all of Lean's major films. He then spent a year in Rio de Janeiro. Wrote a survival book called, K.I.S.S! - Keep It Simple, Stupid!

His family in Kurdistan under Saddam's dictatorship was devastated by Iraq's genocide of Kurds: younger Brother and Brother-In-Law were both murdered. His other siblings and their spouses and children escaped Saddam's terror to settle as refugees in Europe. After 13 years of "missing", his brother's remains were found in a mass grave at Saddam's Abu Ghraib prison. Glimpses of these horrors are reflected in his `David & Layla' film.

Jay was obliged to abandon his film projects unfinished for about ten years, returning to Europe to help his family to escape Saddam's genocidal horrors. Many of his siblings and relatives now live in Diaspora in England, Holland, Germany, the Arab Gulf states, and France.

Based in Paris for three years, Jay used this period to study `French Language and French Civilization', receiving Sorbonne University's Superieur Diploma.

Moved to the USA in 1994, settling in New York where he is a Member of WGA -Writers Guild of America. Has been an active supporter of IFP- Independent Film Project in New York. Acted as volunteer mentor to graduate students at NYU’s Graduate Film Department- assisting the development of their final thesis short films. In New York, he coached actors for their final year scenes and plays at The Circle in the Square Theater on Broadway.

Supports Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Institute Kurde de Paris, World Music Institute... Writes about and promotes films on the plight of oppressed nations and Cultures: Tibet, Kurdistan...

His passion for visual expression led him to be an amateur art collector. He has loaned paintings and objects of art to museums, including a 13th c. French sculpture of an Angel's Head to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

An amateur musician, he collects ethnic music and is listed as a Patron Of the arts at World Music Institute in New York, www.worldmusicinstitute.org. His interests include: playing harmonica and dombak drum; horseback riding; Sufi & ethnic music of the world; wine and cooking- especially Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food.

A Cinephile of both East and West cinema, he is an Internet film critic of World Cinema (www.newrozfilms.com), a writer on Human Rights and a Free-lance adviser to Human Rights International Film Festival.

Fluent in English, French & Kurdish; also some Persian, Arabic & Portuguese.

His original screenplays include: "To Catch An Angel"- a romantic  adventure from USA to Brazil; "Losing Touch"- an incest drama in New York; "David & Layla"- a Jewish American/Muslim Kurdish romantic comedy in New York; "Gilgamesh"- inspired by man's first written epic: a 5000-year old Mesopotamian epic about Love, Loss and a quest for Immortality and "Diaspora Bites" about a survivor of War, a refugee child who joins the Americanized uncle in New York. His next independent film is: "A Thousand and One Nights - New York", a.k.a "Shahrzad, New York."