Iranian stage and puppet designer, performer and director. Kambiz Samimi Mofakham graduated from Dramatic Arts College of Tehran University with a BA in puppet theatre, and received his MA in cultural affairs management from the Art University of Tehran. From 1973 to 1995, he worked as an author, set designer, puppet maker, puppeteer, director, and managing director at the Theatre and Puppet Theatre Department of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA, in Persian: Kanoon-e Parvaresh-e Fekri-e Koodakan va Nojavanan) where he served as an actor, set designer, puppet maker, and puppeteer in over thirty plays, including Cheshm dar Barabar Cheshm (An Eye for an Eye, 1979) and Dastane kherse koochak (The Story of Little Bear, 1980).

Kambiz Samimi Mofakham was a professor in the faculty of Fine Arts at Tehran University, College of Theatre and Cinema in the Art University, and a member of the board of founders of Adamak Puppet Group, as well as a founder of UNIMA Iran (Mobarak UNIMA). He was the costume, puppet, and set designer as well as director and artistic director of at least 300 television programmes and movies, including Shahr-e mooshha (The City of Mice, 1985), and of several children’s films, including Patal va arezoohaye Koochak (Patal and Small Dreams), Golnar (1988), and Dozdeh Aroosakha (The Dolls’ Rubber).

Posthumously, Kambiz Samimi Mofakham was acknowledged as a national cultural figure by the Iran Cultural Heritage Organization for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. The 7th International Puppet Theatre Festival of Tehran was named for him. A theatre salon at the University of Tehran College of Fine Arts, School of Performing Arts and Music, has also been named after him.

(See Iran.)