Nickie Shobeiry
Captured by Pano Media
Burn It Down, Then Build Something Better
In this talk, Nickie Shobeiry uses the phoenix as her anchor: the idea that sometimes you have to burn something down to move forward, and that you do not do it alone. She starts with her family story, raised in Denmark and rural England by Iranian parents who arrived as refugees, and how hearing their escape stories at the kitchen table taught her humour, grit, and resilience early.
She moves into what it felt like growing up visibly different, with media representation that didn’t match the reality of her home life. Small moments of seeing Iranian comedians and stories in public became fuel, and she kept chasing storytelling anyway, first through local writing gigs and then into journalism work in London and later Ottawa.
After relocating to Ottawa and finding creative community through outlets like Apartment 613 and the Ottawa Business Journal, she shares a key turning point: a prestigious 2020 program experience that looked exciting on paper, but left her overwhelmed and needing to reset. A family trip to Turkey, including reconnecting with relatives she hadn’t seen in decades, brings her back to what matters and sparks a new idea.
That idea becomes a CBC Creator Network documentary about why cosmetic nose surgery is so common in Iran. She frames it with care, not judgement, mixing cultural context with her own relationship to her nose. The project brings in major voices, lands real audience engagement, and proves the marketing lesson she didn’t want to admit: the niche works when it’s honest and rooted in community. She closes by linking resilience back to connection, showing how the work grew into radio conversations, community screenings, and a new sense of belonging in her own story.
@nickieshobeiry
