Sam Nazarian
Sam Nazarian is a successful American entrepreneur of Jewish Iranian ancestry. He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SBE, a Los Angeles based luxury hospitality, real estate development and lifestyle company which includes hotel, restaurant, nightlife, and real estate divisions. As a real estate financier, hotelier, and restaurateur, Nazarian owns and operates several award-winning hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs, located throughout Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Miami. His Los Angeles nightclubs and lounges are Area, MI-6, Hyde, XIV, Colony, Eden, MyHouse, MyStudio and The Abbey. Nazarian has also served as executive producer for the films Waiting, Down in the Valley, Five Fingers, The Last Time, Pride, Mr. Brooks and College.
Honored as the youngest executive to be named one of the “Top 100 Most Powerful People in Southern California” by West, the Los Angeles Times’ Magazine, Nazarian was also named among “The Influentials” in Los Angeles Magazine. He is an active member of the Southern California Institute of Architecture’s Board of Directors, and generous supporter of the Beverly Hills Education Foundation. In 2009, Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa appointed Nazarian to the Board of Airport Commissioners of Los Angeles World Airports, as well as being presented a Humanitarian Award from Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors. In May 2009, he was invited by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA) to speak at their annual leadership training conference at UCLA in front of thousands of young Iranian Americans.
He was born in 1975 in Tehran, Iran to Iranian Jewish parents. Nazarian's family immigrated to the United States following the Iranian Revolution. Son of Qualcomm co-founder Younes Nazarian, Sam was raised in Los Angeles, California. He attended Beverly Hills High School and later studied at New York University and the University of Southern California. Sam Nazarian lives in Los Angeles and his home in the Hollywood Hills, sprawling across 6,000 square feet and cantilevered from a cliff face, embraces a multitude of fantasies of Californian living, from the Rat Pack to David Hockney’s Bigger Splash.