[1] Ray Takeyh was born to an Assyrian family in Tehran, Iran in 1966.
Before joining the council, he was a fellow in international security studies at Yale University, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a professor at the National War College, and a professor and director of studies at the Near East and South Asia Center at the National Defense University.
He is married to Suzanne Maloney, Brookings Institution Deputy Director of Foreign Policy, also an Iran analyst.
He has appeared as an Iran expert on a variety of television programs, including the PBS Newshour.
Takeyh assisted Dennis Ross in 2009 in the latter's position as senior Iran advisor at the U.S. State Department.