Hiro Murai (born 1983) is a Japanese-American filmmaker based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. His most notable works include internationally successful music videos for artists such as Childish Gambino,

Earl Sweatshirt Thebe Neruda Kgositsile (born February 24, 1994), also known by his stage name Earl Sweatshirt, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Kgositsile was originally known by the moniker Sly Tendencies when he began rapping in 2008, ...

, Chet Faker, Flying Lotus,

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

St. Vincent Saint Vincent may refer to: People Saints * Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), a.k.a. Vincent the Deacon, deacon and martyr * Saint Vincenca, 3rd century Roman martyress, whose relics are in Blato, Croatia * Vincent, Orontius, and Victor (died 305) ...

, The Shins, The Fray,

Bloc Party Bloc Party are an English rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Louise Bartle ...

Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated QOTSA) is an American rock band formed in 1996 in Palm Desert, California. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, who has been the only constant member throughout multiple lin ...

, and FKA Twigs. He received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

in 2019 for

Best Music Video The Grammy Award for Best Music Video is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality short form music videos. Hon ...

for " This is America" with Childish Gambino. He also received five

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

nominations for the FX series ''

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

'' (2016–present), and the HBO limited series ''

Station Eleven ''Station Eleven'' is a novel by the Canadian writer Emily St. John Mandel. It takes place in the Great Lakes region before and after a fictional swine flu pandemic, known as the "Georgia Flu", has devastated the world, killing most of the popul ...

'' (2022). He is a frequent director of Bill Hader's HBO series ''

Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 195 ...

'' (2018-present) and executive produces the Hulu series '' The Bear'' (2022-present).

Early life and education

Murai was born to Japanese popular music composer Kunihiko Murai. He moved to Los Angeles when he was nine years old. He graduated with a degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. After graduation, Murai turned to freelance work as the director of photography for numerous music videos, as well as VFX and

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in t ...

ing, most notably for Ace Norton. After some time Murai began to direct low budget films.

Career

In 2013, he directed the short film '' Clapping for the Wrong Reasons'', a companion piece for Childish Gambino's second studio album, '' Because the Internet'', and its attached screenplay. In the same year, he created a multi-panel video set for Frank Ocean's performance at the Grammys. Since 2016, Murai has directed several episodes of the comedy-drama ''

'', collaborating again with Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino). For his work on the show, he has received three nominations for the

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Outstanding Comedy Series and

Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series is presented to the best directing of a television comedy series. Winners and nominations 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Total awards by netwo ...

. In 2016 he directed a Nike campaign starring Chance The Rapper. He directed the music video for Childish Gambino's " This Is America", released on May 5, 2018, which was described as "the most talked-about music video of recent memory", and which ''Billboard'' critics ranked 10th among the "greatest music videos of the 21st century." In 2019, Murai won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video for directing the video. In November 2018, the trailer for his debut feature film ''

Guava Island ''Guava Island'' is a 2019 American musical film directed by Hiro Murai (his feature directorial debut) with a screenplay by Stephen Glover from a story by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Ibra Ake, Jamal Olori and Fam Udeorji. It stars Donald Gl ...

'', starring Donald Glover and

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, premiered at the Pharos Festival in New Zealand. ''Guava Island'' was released on April 13, 2019, by Amazon Studios through Amazon Prime Video. On

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, the film has an approval rating of 74% based on reviews from 43 critics, with an average rating of 6.60/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. In 2021, Murai directed the first and third episode the

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

'' for

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. In June 2018, it was announced that he would direct a science fiction feature film, ''Man Alive'', written by David Robert Mitchell.

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

Awards and nominations

*(2009) MVPA Award for Best Video under $25K. The Fray "Heartless" *(2012) Best Music Video Lists: Pitchfork / BuzzFeed / Consequence of Sound / Video Static / Co.Create / NPR Music - for St. Vincent "Cheerleader" and Earl Sweatshirt "Chum" *(2013) MVPA Best Electronic Video:

- "

She Wolf ''She Wolf'' ( es, Loba, link=no) is the eighth studio album and third English-language album by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira. It was released on 9 October 2009, by Epic Records and Sony Music Latin. As executive producers, Shakira and Am ...

" *(2014) UKMVA Director of the Year / Best Rock / Indie Video International QOTSA for ''Smooth Sailing''. *(2014) Best Music Videos Lists: The Verge, Pitchfork, IMVDB, Stereogum

References

External links

Official website
*
Hiro Murai
at the Internet Music Video Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Murai, Hiro 1983 births Living people American film directors of Japanese descent Grammy Award winners Filmmakers from California Japanese filmmakers People from Tokyo USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni Japanese emigrants to the United States