Mikael Sharafyan was born and raised in Yerevan, Armenia. Both sides of his family include several generations of artists, writers, musicians, and actors.

One of them was legendary American costume designer Irene Sharaff. She won five Academy Awards for “The King and I”, “An American in Paris”, “Cleopatra”, “West Side Story”, and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”.

Mikael’s father is a well known Armenian theatre and movie actor, and his mother is a pianist-accompanist for ballet. It was in 2000 that his father got their Green Cards, and took them to United States, the land of opportunities.

In high school, Mikayel participated in many art competitions and was awarded several prizes. He became a member of National Art Honor Society. Soon, Mikayel started to work as a volunteer usher at the Glendale’s historical Alex Theatre and later designed the vests for the ushers.

He also worked as a paid extra in movies and television shows, where he has had the opportunity to work with such talents such as Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Then he got the degree in Fashion, he got accepted to the Advanced Study Program for Theatre Costume Design at FIDM and received a Warnaco Scholarship.

He started his acting career in 2004 in the movie “The Terminal”. He played the role of a traveler. By the way, Mikael Sharafyan made it to the list of “Top 10 Best Costume Designers in The World for 2016” .