After graduating from Verdugo Hills High School, Nazarian traveled extensively, exploring the Southwest and Baja California, inspired by the photography of Robert Frank and the travelogues of Sam Shepard and John Steinbeck across America and the Sea of Cortez.
During his senior year at USC, he photographed post-war life in the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Southern Caucasus that further cemented his international storytelling passions spanning from the Near East to the U.S.
The Blue Hour, Nazarian's first feature film as writer-director, is composed of four stories about multiethnic working-class lives near the Los Angeles River, starring Alyssa Milano, Clarence Williams III and Emily Rios.
"[3][4] After receiving the Fellowship, Nazarian wrote and directed "Bolis," a short film about a descendant of an Armenian Genocide survivor in Istanbul as part of the European Union Capital of Culture Program.
In 2021, Nazarian wrote and directed "Die Like a Man," the first installment of a rites of passage film trilogy exploring street cultures, cycles of violence and gentrification across two decades in 21st century America.