Interest in the Middle East is helping Reza Aslan bring his expertise in all things Islam to Hollywood.

The Iranian-born Aslan, who has five college degrees – including a doctorate in religious studies – runs BoomGen Studios, a boutique film consultancy that helps moviemakers tell stories rooted in the cultures of the Middle East, as well as sell movie tickets to audiences in the region.

“I don’t have a job, I have a mission,” Aslan said. “The mission is to build bridges between European and North American culture and the greater Middle East.”

BoomGen’s latest credit was Disney’s action movie “Prince of Persia.” Aslan and his colleagues worked on the project from script development to marketing. Activists protested that Jake Gyllenhaal was too white to play the ethnic lead, but Aslan countered that the story takes place before a series of Arab invasions darkened the local Persian populace.

“The Middle Eastern community, especially the Iranian community, really got behind this film,” he said. “They were still reeling from ‘300,’ which showed Persians as the bad guys.”

Reza called his company BoomGen because the Middle East is the world’s largest emerging consumer market and has a young demographic. The region currently has a GDP of $2.7 trillion, but some forecasts range as high as $30 trillion by 2050. Half the region’s population is under 25.

“The numbers speak for themselves: This is a massive market and it’s underserved,” he said. “But they have this sense of paranoia. They are wary because of the way they are presented in film – always the bad guy.”