Ayad earned a degree in Theatre from Brown University and, after graduating, moved to Tuscany to work with world-renowned acting theorist and pioneer, Jerzy Grotowski (Towards a Poor Theatre). He has been a New York City resident since the late-nineties, where he has taught acting on his own and alongside Andre Gregory (My Dinner with Andre, Vanya on 42nd St.). An alumnus of the Graduate Film Program at Columbia University, Ayad earned a degree in directing and won multiple awards for his work. He is the author of numerous screenplays. He cowrote and played the lead role in The War Within, which premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. It was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award (Best Screenplay) and released internationally. Also a playwright, his latest stage plays are Disgraced and The Invisible Hand. Disgraced premiered in Chicago at the American Theater Company in early 2012 and will be premiering in New York in the fall of 2012. The Invisible Hand premiered at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis in March of 2012. American Dervish, his first novel, was published in January 2012 and will be released in 22 languages worldwide.