Adrin Nazarian (; born March 19, 1973) is an American politician of

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

descent who is a member of the

Los Angeles City Council The Los Angeles City Council is the Legislature, lawmaking body for the Government of Los Angeles, city government of Los Angeles, California, the second largest city in the United States. It has 15 members who each represent the 15 city council ...

for the 2nd district since 2024. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature (the upper house being the California State Senate). The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Califor ...

from 2012 to 2022, representing the 46th Assembly District in the central and southern

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

Biography

Adrin Nazarian was born in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. As a child, he immigrated with his family to the

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. He grew up there and received his BA degree in Economics from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in 1996. After graduating UCLA, Nazarian participated in the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs. From 1997 to 1999, he served as an aide to Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA), assisting him with business and labor community issues. In 1999, then-Governor

Gray Davis Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 until he was recalled and removed from office in 2003. He is the second state governor ...

appointed Nazarian as Special Assistant to the California Trade and Commerce Agency. During his tenure at the agency, Nazarian helped establish the Division of Science, Technology and Innovation, which focused on creating and maintaining technology-based jobs in California. Nazarian served as chief of staff to then-Assemblymember Paul Krekorian from 2006 until Krekorian was elected to the

in 2010. Nazrian then served as Krekorian's chief of staff at City Hall until 2012. In February 2022, Nazarian announced that he would not seek reelection in the 2022 California State Assembly election, and also announced that he intends to run in 2024 to replace Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Krekorian, who cannot seek another term due to term limits. Nazarian has served on the boards of several community-based organizations including the East Valley

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

and the YWCA. He was one of the founding members of Generation Next Mentorship program which worked with local public schools to give young people alternatives to a life of gangs and drugs. Nazarian and his wife, Diana, reside in Sherman Oaks with their children Alex, David and Maggie.

Political positions

Affirmative action

Assembly Bill 979, enacted as law in 2020, requires publicly held domestic or foreign corporations whose principal executive office is in California to have a certain minimum numbers of directors from “underrepresented communities” in order to increase diversity on their boards. The term "underrepresented community" is defined as "an individual who self‑identifies as Black,

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

, Latino, Asian,

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, Native American,

Native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; , , , and ) are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, Indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was set ...

, or

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Native Alaskans, Alaskan Indians, or Indigenous Alaskans) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of Alaska that encompass a diverse arena of cultural and linguistic groups, including the I ...

, or who self‑identifies as gay,

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, or

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

." In 2022, Nazarian attempted, through Assembly Bill 1840, to add

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

and individuals with

disabilities Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physica ...

, to the list of underrepresented groups.

Armenia and Artsakh

In response to the

Second Nagorno-Karabakh War The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict in 2020 that took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenian-occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, surrounding occupied territories. It was a major esca ...

, Nazarian stated "The United States and other world powers cannot continue to ignore these crimes against the Armenian people. While western global leaders ask for “peace” Turkey has provided arms and even transported Syrian mercenaries to Azerbaijan to fight with Aliyev’s army. Armenia is a thriving democracy, growing stronger each year. We know who the aggressors are and it is time that the international community acknowledges their complicity in these attacks. It's time the Western powers stopped prioritizing a few cheap barrels of oil over human life and peace." In response to news coverage of the war, Nazarian called upon journalists to present the facts truthfully and in their entirety, stating "It’s your responsibility to make sure that people have a historical context and understand what is going on." In response to the ongoing destruction of Armenian cultural and historical sites, Nazarian introduced a cultural heritage preservation bill (Assembly Bill 1815), which "would prohibit a museum in California that receives public funding from displaying any country-funded item or artifact, or sending to a country or receiving from a country any item or artifact, if that country has received an adverse judgment by the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

regarding its destruction of cultural heritage artifacts or sites."

LGBTQ+ Rights

In 2021, Nazarian introduced Assembly Bill 465, which requires that professional fiduciaries receive LGBTQ+ cultural competency and sensitivity training during their education and licensing process. Nazarian hosted an October 2022 fundraiser brunch for GALAS LGBTQ+ Armenian Society, where the organization and its members received awards and recognition from local elected officials, including Los Angeles County Supervisors

Kathryn Barger Kathryn Ann Barger-Leibrich (born in 1960) is an American politician who is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for the 5th District since 2016 and is the Chair of Los Angeles County. A member of the Republican Party (United ...

and Hilda Solis and Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Krekorian.

Electoral history

2012

2014

2016

2018

References

External links

* — ''California's 46th State Assembly district: Adrin Nazarian'' *
Campaign website
�� then-candidate Adrin Nazarian
Join California Adrin Nazarian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nazarian, Adrin Democratic Party members of the California State Assembly Living people University of California, Los Angeles alumni Ethnic Armenian politicians People from Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles 1973 births American people of Armenian descent American politicians of Iranian descent Politicians from Tehran Iranian emigrants to the United States Iranian people of Armenian descent 21st-century members of the California State Legislature