Behdad Esfahbod Résumé /behˈ·dɒːd ɛs·fæhˈ·boːd/ ▶

Behdad Esfahbod is an Iranian-Canadian software engineer best known as the author of HarfBuzz and for his contributions to Free & Open Source Software. He is also interested in writing, photography, interactive work, and experimental & essay filmmaking exploring mental health and the human condition.

behdad.org · behdad@behdad.org · Edmonton, Canada

∞ Games & Interactive Work

2026 — Loft Day. Point-and-click browser game — creative direction, game design, art & sound direction, and software engineering — with Markéta Jakešová and Irene | Play | Details | Source
2026 — Egg Hunt. Illustrated browser game and save-the-date — creative direction, game design, and software engineering | Play | Details | Source
2026 — markéta & behdad. Interactive wedding website embedding Loft Day and Egg Hunt while retaining its own distinct wedding theme | Source

These works were developed with Claude and Codex under my creative and art direction, through hands-on testing and iterative refinement.

For more information, see the games page.

∞ Short Films

2025 — Identity. 7 minutes — with Markéta Jakešová | IMDb | FilmFreeway
2020–2024 — Eternal Presence: Journey into the Mind. 20 minutes — with Asal Andarzipour | IMDb | FilmFreeway
2024 — Water. 17 minutes — with Omid Dolatkhah | IMDb | FilmFreeway
2024 — MANIA. 5 minutes — with Brooke Leifso | IMDb | FilmFreeway

For more information, see the films page.

∞ Writing

Pixels & Poems — چیزها و شعرها. Creative writing in Persian & English.

∞ Group Exhibitions

2025 — One photograph: Irene I. Annual Members’ Exhibition — Joy. Harcourt House Artist Run Centre, Edmonton, Canada
2025 — “Eternal Presence: Journey into the Mind”. Bleeding Hearts Art Space, Edmonton, Canada
2025 — One photograph: Fluid. The Artist’s Lens — Identity. ASA Gallery, Alberta Society of Artists, Calgary, Canada
2024 — “MANIA” | Gifts of Madness; Penticton Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada
2024 — Two photographs: Rebirth | Will and Divine. The Artist’s Lens — Body. ASA Gallery, Alberta Society of Artists, Calgary, Canada
2021 — “The Prime Minister was in Tofino” | Hats Off; a CARFAC Alberta Silent Auction FUNdraiser, Edmonton, Canada (sold)

∞ Awards & Festivals

2025–11 — Official Selection, for Identity | Queer Film Festival Kathmandu
2025–10 — Best Experimental, for Identity | Orchid International Queer Itinerant Film Festival ROSARITO
2025–10 — Nominee, for Water | Urban Mediamakers Film Festival
2025–06 — Award of Excellence, for Identity | One-Reeler Short Film Competition
2024–10 — Official Selection, for MANIA | Little Venice Film Festival
2024–09 — Official Selection, for MANIA | International Film Festival Manhattan
2024–06 — Honorable Mention: Best War/Western/History, for Eternal Presence: Journey into the Mind | Absurd Film Festival
2024–06 — Honorable Mention, for MANIA | Night of Drama Shorts
2024–05 — Silver Award: Best Editing, for Eternal Presence: Journey into the Mind | Independent Shorts Awards
2024–05 — Finalist: Best Experimental Short, for Eternal Presence: Journey into the Mind | Indie Short Fest
2024–01 — Best Health & Medicine Film, for MANIA | Berlin Kiez Film Festival
2024–01 — Best Health & Medicine Film, for MANIA | Mannheim Arts & Film Festival
2024–01 — Best Health & Welfare Film, for MANIA | Ponza Film Awards Italy
2024 — Viewer Impact: Motivational/Inspirational: Merit, for MANIA | Documentaries Without Borders International Film Festival
2024 — Semi-Finalist, for MANIA | Courage Film Festival
2024 — Honorable Mention, for Eternal Presence: Journey into the Mind | Experimental Forum
2024 — Honorable Mention: Best Film on Mental Health, for MANIA | My Name is Climate Film Festival

∞ Film Production

Since 2022 — Co-producer | Four Sisters by Mania Akbari, Cryptofiction (unreleased)
2021–2022 — Co-producer | How Dare You Have Such a Rubbish Wish by Mania Akbari, Cryptofiction | IMDb

∞ Archival Film Work

2022–2024 — Photography / videography / editing of protests and marches for the “Women, Life, Freedom” Iranian movement, Edmonton, Canada

∞ Software Engineering

Since 2021 — Software Engineering Consultant, Edmonton, Canada
2019–2020 — Senior Staff Software Engineer, Facebook Inc., Washington State, USA
2010–2019 — Senior Staff Software Engineer, Google Inc., Canada & California, USA
2006–2010 — Software Engineer, Red Hat Inc., Toronto, Canada
2003 — Co-Founder, Sharif FarsiWeb Inc., Tehran, Iran
2000–2003 — Software Engineer, FarsiWeb Project, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

∞ Software Projects

Since 2005 — HarfBuzz Primary author & developer
Since 2025 — HarfRust Co-maintainer & developer
Since 2013 — FontTools Co-maintainer & developer

More Open Source projects on my GitHub.

∞ Past Software Projects

GLyphy — high-quality text rendering using OpenGL ES2 shaders
Pango — GNOME’s Unicode text rendering library
Fontconfig — library for font customization and configuration
FriBidi — an implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm
Cairo — graphics library
gucharmap — the GNOME Unicode character map
vte — the GNOME terminal emulation widget
The FarsiTeX Project — a Persian LaTeX typesetting system
The FarsiWeb Project — a Persian Free Software task force
The Fedora Project — my favorite Linux distribution
The GNOME Project — more about my GNOME involvement here

∞ Papers & Talks

Technical papers and talks spanning over 25 years are available on the documents page.

∞ Education

2009–2012 — Evening MBA, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Canada
2003–2006 — M.Sc. in Computer Science, University of Toronto, Canada
2000–2003 — B.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

∞ Technical Awards

2013 — “O’Reilly Open Source Award” for developing HarfBuzz
2005 — “Google Summer of Code” grant for developing preload
2000 — Gold Medal, 12th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI’2000), China
1999 — Silver Medal, 11th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI’99), Turkey