Fairul Zahid holds a master's degree (MFA) from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. He was a principal dancer/choreographer at ASK Dance Company, Christina Noel and the Creature NYC, The Nutcracker, New York City Ballet, LaneCo Arts NYC, as well as an artistic director of Asia Duo Dance Company. He currently lectures in the Diploma in Dance programme and is a lecturer in charge of the BA (Hons) International Contemporary Dance Practices at LASALLE. He is also President of World Dance Alliance Singapore.

Fairul was a lecturer at several universities in Malaysia, including the National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage and University Technology MARA. He was also invited as a guest lecturer and choreographer by several universities, including Minzu University, Capital Normal School (Beijing), University of the Philippines and Temple University, Philadelphia.

Fairul has produced several full-length and mixed-bill performances for tours in Beijing, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Jakarta, Indonesia and the Philippines. He is a prolific and versatile choreographer and dancer working in the disciplines of contemporary dance, classical ballet, Malay dance, Chinese classical dance, Indian classical dance and jazz.

In his work, he has collaborated with local and international artists including Riki Von Falken, Gideon Oberzanek, Un Yamada, Ena Herosie, Pamela Pietro, Sean Curran, Netta Yerusalmy, Patrick Suzeu, Jeff Tsei, Brigel Gjoka, Pamela S.Pietro, Yachao Zhu, Herbert Alvarez, Elena Laniog, Lane Gifford, Hala Shah and Crystal Pite.

Fairul was a top 20 finalist of Malaysia’s edition of So You Think You Can Dance in 2008. In 2020, he won the Best Group Performance in the Cameronian Arts Award for the theatre production of Oedipus under the FiTA Theatre Assemble and was nominated for Best Choreographer for TRANSCENDENCE, an evening of contemporary dance performance. In 2018, his work CanSur was awarded Best Group Performance at the Cameronian Arts Awards and nominated for Best Choreography. His work SOPAN won the MASDANZA Award at the YOKOHAMA Dance Collection in 2023 and earned multiple nominations at the Cameronian Arts Awards 2024 and 2025. 

Besides creative work, he has also published several papers in Scopus and International journals.

Fairul is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Malaya, Malaysia, with a focus on practice as research.