- Born
- Birth nameMikayel Levoni Sharafyan
- Mikael Sharafyan, originally from Yerevan, Armenia, is an award winning costume designer. Born into a family of artist, he is part of a lineage of entertainers, spanning back several generations. Of the artists, writers, musicians, and actors of his family tree, Levon Sharafyan stands out as a theater and movie actor. Sharafyan's mother, Ruzan Muradyan, is a pianist accompanist for ballet performances.
Sharafyan immersion into the arts began early. He would begin attending art academy at the age of seven. There, he learned to paint and sculpt. Patrons of theatre, his parents would work to advance Sharafyan's cultural and artistic palette by taking him to theatrical performances on a regular basis. There, the costume-designer-to-be found his passion as he was often introduced to performers and ushered through their dressing rooms. In 2001, Sharafyan settled in Glendale, CA. After graduating from Glendale High School, he participated in fine arts competitions, receiving awards and ranking highly amongst his peers. Thereafter, Sharafyan graduated from the Fashion Design Institute of Design (FDIM), receiving his degree in Fashion Design, taking an additional year to finish the Advanced Study Program in Theater Costume Design. His completion of the advanced studies program earned him a Warnaco Scholarship, which was presented to him by renown fashion designer Randolph Duke.
While acquiring his degree, Sharafyan also completed a six-month internship at Mon Atelier for couturier Ali Rahimi and another three-month internship working for Center Theater Group, in Downtown L.A. The competitions, internships, and academic training helped Sharafyan to acquire and advance his knowledge of the essential skills required of costume designers: sketching, dyeing fabrics, and constructing period and contemporary costumes. After his diploma, Sharafyan worked for eight years as a cutter and digitizer at Silvia's Costumes, Inc, in Hollywood. While there, he had the opportunity to work with Academy Award winning costume designer Colleen Atwood and Emmy Award winning designers Peter Menefee, Ray Aghayan, and Mona May, providing Sharafyan with the opportunity to cut the wedding dress from the movie "Enchanted". His debut as a costume designer was in 2008, when he worked for a Moulin Rouge ensemble that would go on to perform at President Obama's inaugural ball in Washington, D.C.
In 2011, Sharafyan became a recipient of the Best Costume Design award at the L.A. Cinema Festival of Hollywood for the music video "Disasteroid." Sharafyan's passion for costume design stems from a history of immersion into the arts. He considers costume design as a craft akin to sculpting and painting, where the artist is handcrafting individual works of art, meticulously drawing out the details and creating his works with the same strokes of inspiration that would motivate a painter to paint and taking his needle to thread with the same precision a sculptor would take a chisel to marble. In short, Sharafyan considers himself both as a dedicated professional and artist.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpouseNare Grigoryan(June 10, 2018 - April 24, 2024) (separated, 1 child)
- Gender / Gender identityMale
- Mikael Sharafyan has dedicated his life to the arts and is a follower of classic Hollywood traditions. He prefers to illustrate his own costumes to complement the mood of each story, with a unique approach tailored to each project. His range as an artist is vast - building on his experience in designing for both film and stage.
- Mikael Sharafyan made it to the list of "Top 10 Best Costume Designers in The World for 2016" according to TopTeny.com.
- Son of actor Levon Sharafyan and grand-nephew of Irene Sharaff.
- Mikael's mother, Ruzan Muradyan, is a pianist-accompanist at Los Angeles Ballet.
- Mikael has a degree in Fashion and Theatre Costume Design from Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM).
- Winner of Best Costume Design for "Disasteroid" music video at Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood in Fall 2011.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content