The 26-year-old Iranian, whose Chinese name is Hua Bo, is the only foreigner who advanced into the semifinal of “Comedy Star,” a reality competition series to select talented amateur comedians.The show is presented on Sundays on Dragon TV. A big challenge for all the contestants is that each time they advance to another round, they will have to present a new original act.

Estilaf is currently a host of “The Funniest Home Video” on International Channel Shanghai and a PhD candidate at the Shanghai Theater Academy, specializing in TV and film programming and directing.He is fluent in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, as well as some regional dialects of China. He has hosted light-hearted programs to teach local people English with Shanghai dialect and cooperated with mainland actress Sun Li in the TV drama “Hot Mom!”Estilaf has lived in Shanghai for nine years.