Yashar Alishenas was born in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, upon which he immigrated to Sweden. His fascination with the shadows of the past, truth and double universes drew him to philosophy and literature, which he studied in Heidelberg and Oxford, punctuated by a sabbatical in Paris, where he was supposed to learn French but spent most of his time going to cinemas and theatres. Inspired, he directed plays at university and worked as an assistant director at Riksteatern. He later produced many short films and a low-budget feature distributed in cinemas in Iran.

After Europe-wide stints in education, start-up and podcasting, writing ended up becoming Alishenas’ preferred way to make sense of the world. Alishenas studied screenwriting at Serial Eyes in Berlin, the course’s first Swedish participant. Subsequently, he co-created and wrote the first-ever French-Iranian series Happiness (2021) with ARTE, one of the channel’s most successful short series, and later worked on a German Disney+ show. He has been selected at numerous writing labs, such as Bergmanveckans Talanglabb, Torino Film Lab, Series Mania Writers’ Campus and Cannes’ Writers’ Club. In 2024 he won the Plume de Cristal Award for ‘Best TV Series Screenplay’ at Valence Scénario for his original concept L’enfer c’est moi. 

In 2026, season two of Happiness premiered at Series Mania.

Currently, Alishenas is developing films and shows in Sweden and abroad. Based in Stockholm, he keeps working in many languages and tends to politely ignore borders, both in terms of genres and nations.