Sharon Nazarian

Early life

Sharon Nazarian was born in Tehran, Iran. Her father, Younes Nazarian, is a business mogul and philanthropist. Her mother, Soraya Nazarian, is a sculptor. She has two brothers, Sam Nazarian, David Nazarian, and a sister, Shulamit Nazarian. Her uncle, Izak Parviz Nazarian, is the co-founder of Qualcomm and a philanthropist. During the Iranian Revolution of 1979, she immigrated to the United States, settling in Beverly Hills, California with her parents and siblings.

She graduated from the University of Southern California (USC), where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and International Relations. She then received a Master's degree and a PhD in Political Science from USC.

Career

Nazarian was an adjunct professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is the founder of the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Israel Studies Center at UCLA, and serves as the Chair of its Community Advisory Board.

She is a major shareholder of Nazarian Enterprises and SBE Entertainment Group.

Philanthropy

Nazarian serves as the President of her family foundation, the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation. She serves on the Board of Directors of HIAS, a non-profit organization for Jewish refugees, the Pacific Council on International Policy.

She serves on the Executive Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, and on the Board of Trustees of the Crossroads School in Santa Monica. Additionally, she supports higher education in Israel, as a Board member of the American Friends of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the American Society of the University of Haifa.

On May 6, 2013, she was the recipient of a Deborah Award from the Anti-Defamation League in a ceremony at the SLS Hotel Beverly Hills.

Personal life

She was married to Sharyar Baradaran, a periodontist, from 1990 to the early 2010s. They resided in a mansion in Holmby Hills until 2012. She now resides in Los Angeles, and she has three children.