Karren Karagulian

Karren Karagulian
Karren Karagulian in 2024
Born	Karren Karagulian 1969 (age 55–56) Armenia
Occupation(s)	Actor, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1996–present

Karren Karagulian (Armenian: Կարեն Կարագուլան; born 1969) is an Armenian-American actor.

He is known primarily for his collaborations with director Sean Baker, with whom he has worked since the early 1990s. In 2024, he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Performance for his role in Anora.

Career

Karagulian was born in Armenia. He left the country at 18 and served in the army for the Soviet Union. He later immigrated to New York City at 20, where he first met Sean Baker, who attended New York University at the time. In addition to starring in all of Baker’s films, Karagulian is also credited as a producer on Tangerine, explaining “for Tangerine, I helped find Armenian actors, wrote Armenian dialogue, translated, or wrote subtitles for the film.”

In 2024, Karagulian starred in Baker’s film Anora. Regarding the history of the film, Karagulian explained “we started actually writing a story together in 2009– it was like a buddy-buddy kind of story happening in Brighton Beach. And we were trying to get it made, but we couldn’t get it financed . . . a few years ago, he called me, and he said that he wrote this script that he wants me to read, and he sent me Anora. I was in awe at how well-written, how sharp a screenplay that was. I fell in love with it. And of course, we’ve been communicating always regarding names of characters, or some locations, or some Armenian dialog, or some Russian dialog.”

While Karagulian considered retirement from acting prior to Anora, the film’s success resulted in increased attention and rejuvenated his career.