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Celebrate the ancient tradition

Mehregan is a celebration of Persian culture inspired by the ancient Persian harvest festival.

The Untermyer Gardens Conservancy's annual Mehregan gala will take place in the magnificent Walled Garden on Sunday, September 27, from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. The evening will feature Persian cuisine, music, and poetry. The gala raises crucial support for our efforts to restore and maintain the finest Persian garden in the Western Hemisphere.

During the evening, we will present the Minnie Untermyer Award to Arian Moayed, the accomplished actor, writer, director, and filmmaker. Learn more about our esteemed honoree below.

Benefit Co-Chairs

Sayna and Nima Ameri

Katy Palizban and Cyrus Amir-Mokri

Tara Emrani and Mehdi Ansari

Diana and Frederick Elghanayan

Marjan Ghara and Ali Granmayeh

Nassrin Iromloo Zahedi

 

Honorary Co-Chairs

Patricia and Alexander Farman-Farmaian

Meet the honoree:

Arian Moayed is a multifaceted actor, writer, director, and filmmaker who has received accolades for his work on stage, on television, and on screen. He received two Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Stewy Hosseini in the acclaimed HBO series Succession. His Broadway acting credits include A Doll’s House (Tony nomination, opposite Jessica Chastain), The Humans (Drama Desk Award), and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Tony nomination, opposite Robin Williams). Off Broadway, he won an Obie Award for his performance in Guards at the Taj. He is the writer and director of the Emmy-nominated thriller series The Accidental Wolf. Together with the Nobel Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai, he was an executive producer of Champions of the Golden Valley, which received the 2026 National Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Documentary.

Born in Iran, Arian immigrated to the United States with his family in 1986, settling near Chicago and later graduating from Indiana University. Among his upcoming film projects is an autobiography about his family’s escape from Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

He is the chair and co-founder of Waterwell, an Obie Award-winning New York City nonprofit organization that brings art and civics together. Its groundbreaking theater productions include Stories from the City of Immigrants, The Ford/Hill Project, Blind Runner, A Good Day to Me Not to You, 7 Minutes, The Persians, and The Courtroom, which he wrote and later filmed. Waterwell actively works alongside such organizations as the American Immigration Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Rescue Committee, the New York Immigration Coalition, KultureCity, the Iranian American Women Foundation, Nimruz, and dozens more in local and national communities to bring art to civics. Arian has taught in the New York City public school system for nearly two decades, including courses called “Artist as Citizen.”

Currently, he can be seen in the series Nobody Wants This (Netflix). Earlier this year he reprised his role from the film Spiderman: No Way Home (Marvel) as Agent Cleary in the series Wonder Man (Disney+).

Tables and Tickets: Tables of ten $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 and $25,000; Tables of four $6,000; Individual tickets $1,000 and $1,500.

Untermyer Gardens Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) organization and contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. The non-deductible portion of each ticket is $200. Dress: Jacket and tie, shoes appropriate for grass and gravel.

Mehregan is a benefit for the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy, a nonprofit organization founded fifteen years ago to restore Untermyer Gardens, which is home to the finest Persian garden in the Western Hemisphere. Overlooking the Hudson River in Yonkers, 40 minutes north of New York City, the garden is open free to the public and enjoyed by more than 300,000 visitors a year.