His Teenage Apocalypse film trilogy, consisting of Totally F***ed Up (1993), The Doom Generation (1995) and Nowhere (1997), has been heralded as a cult classic.

With a budget of only $5,000 and using a stationary camera, he told the story of a romance between a video artist, her sweetheart, and her gay friend.

[8][non-primary source needed] Araki's next three movies—Totally F***ed Up (1993), The Doom Generation (1995), and Nowhere (1997)—were collectively dubbed the Teenage Apocalypse trilogy.

[10] The trilogy saw Araki work increasingly with more notable actors and actresses including Rose McGowan, Margaret Cho, Parker Posey, Guillermo Díaz, Ryan Phillippe, Heather Graham, and Mena Suvari among others.

The trilogy received varying degrees of reviews, from a thumbs down and "zero stars" by Roger Ebert to "Literally the Best Thing Ever" by Rookie, and was eventually heralded as cult classics.

[14] Araki's next project was the ill-fated MTV production This Is How the World Ends, originally planned with a budget of $1.5 million.

[2][15] Araki wrote, directed, and shot the pilot episode, but ultimately MTV decided against the project and the effort never aired.

[2][15] Following a short hiatus, Araki returned in 2004 with the critically acclaimed Mysterious Skin, based on the 1995 Scott Heim novel of the same name.

Araki returned to television with the 2019 series Now Apocalypse, co-executive produced by Gregory Jacobs and Steven Soderbergh on Starz.