Eric Esrailian is an American physician at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also an Emmy-nominated film producer and is active in charity and community service activities in Los Angeles.
Eric Esrailian is an American physician at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also an Emmy-nominated film producer and is active in charity and community service activities in Los Angeles.
He completed his undergraduate education at University of California, Berkeley. He then graduated from the Loma Linda University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Southern California. He was named intern, junior resident, and senior resident of the year during all three years of his residency training. He completed his gastroenterology fellowship at UCLA, where he also obtained a Masters of Public Health degree. He is also a graduate of the Executive Program in Management from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. [1]
Esrailian is a full-time faculty member at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is described as having patient care, teaching, and administrative positions. [1] He was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Medical Board of California and served from 2010 to 2011. [2] In 2017, UCLA designated Esrailian as one of its UCLA Optimists and notable alumni, leading faculty, visionary partners, and advanced scholars. [3]
Esrailian has led philanthropic efforts connecting health, human rights, education, and the arts around the world. [4] Esrailian has also launched a leadership speaker series called 'Leaders of Tomorrow' at UCLA, which emphasizes essential leadership skills through his experiences and those of some of his friends who are the most influential and successful leaders in the Los Angeles community. [5] In October 2020, Esrailian led a conversation on 'Grit: Why It Matters', featuring leaders such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Brad Gilbert and various deans from the UCLA campus. [5] In 2021, he discussed the topic 'Doing The Right Thing' with Amal Clooney. [6]
Esrailian is Armenian, and he is recognized for global philanthropic efforts and work involving social justice, particularly in the Armenian community. [7] A major focus appears to have been securing recognition of the Armenian genocide by the U.S. government, and the Armenian National Committee of America has recognized his influence on that milestone. [8] On April 24, 2021, on the 106th commemoration of the Armenian genocide, Joe Biden added the Executive Branch's recognition as president. [9] President Armen Sarkissian thanked Eric Esrailian, Kim Kardashian and Cher for their efforts. [10]
Esrailian established The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law in 2017. The institute is the hub for all human rights scholarship and advocacy in the university and is supported by proceeds from the feature film Esrailian produced in 2016, The Promise, which was set during the Armenian Genocide. Celebrities, some of who are of Armenian descent, supported and promoted the film, including Cher, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Barbra Streisand, Don Cheadle, and Andre Agassi. [11] Under Esrailian's direction, UCLA also unveiled The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA in 2019, which was created with a $20 million gift from the estate of philanthropist and entrepreneur Kirk Kerkorian, who was a close friend of Esrailian. [12] In 2020, Esrailian led members from this institute and UCLA Health to form an interdisciplinary team to provide both immediate medical disaster relief and long-term humanitarian aid and infrastructure support to assist in the stabilization of the healthcare capacity in Armenia during and after war. [13]
Amid reemerging violence in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in 2020, Esrailian organized a PSA with the help of his friend - singer and Armenian activist Cher - which called for the U.S. to cut off aid and weapon sales to Azerbaijan and impose sanctions. [14] Esrailian has also drafted statements for his close friends and Hollywood actors of Armenian descent, to call on the U.S. for more support to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. [15] In 2023, Esrailian wrote an Op-Ed with Cher for Newsweek describing the need to support Armenians in the face of a potential humanitarian catastrophe due to Azerbaijan's blockade of the Lachin corridor. [16]
Esrailian joined the Board of Directors and is currently vice-chair of the Hammer Museum [17] in 2012, which is an art museum and cultural center in Los Angeles. Esrailian is also on the board of directors of the X Prize Foundation, a non-profit organization that designs and manages public competitions and on the board of trustees for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. [18] Esrailian is on the central board of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) which is the world's largest non-profit organization devoted to upholding the Armenian heritage. Furthermore, Esrailian is also on the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) Board of Governors and the board of directors for the Clooney Foundation for Justice where he was a host of the inaugural Albie Awards in honor of Justice Albie Sachs. [19] Esrailian, Sean Parker, and Casey Wasserman, were highlighted as innovative and entrepreneurial philanthropists as part of UCLA's magazine about the impact of philanthropy on the future of medicine and science. [20]
Esrailian was on the Board of Directors of LA 2024. [21] With combined efforts from the Board, they were able to make Los Angeles the host city for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic games. [22] Esrailian has also been involved in establishing additional programs with UCLA, such as the Leaders of Tomorrow series [23] and a medical school scholarship program [24] which focuses on teaching leadership skills to UCLA students, trainees, and stakeholders via panels featuring influential and successful leaders in the Los Angeles community. Esrailian worked with the Kardashian family to launch the UCLA Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health. [25]
In 2015, Esrailian was announced as a manager and producer for Kirk Kerkorian's production company which was set up to raise awareness about the Armenian genocide using a scripted film and documentary combination – Survival Pictures. [26] He produced The Promise with Mike Medavoy. The epic film stars Golden Globe Award nominee Oscar Isaac and Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winner Christian Bale. In 2017, he produced Intent To Destroy with Joe Berlinger and Chip Rosenbloom. In 2019, Intent To Destroy was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). [27]
In 2019, Esrailian and his partners at Forgotten Man Films launched SOMM TV, a streaming service with original series, films, and masterclasses dedicated to food and wine. [28]
In 2021, Esrailian produced Francesco about Pope Francis directed by Evgeny Afineevsky and distributed by Discovery+. The film also features Pope Francis' statements about the Armenian Genocide and pilgrimage to Armenia in 2016. [29] In November 2021, Pope Francis awarded Esrailian with the Benemerenti Medal in Vatican City for his humanitarian efforts. He became the first person of Armenian descent to receive the honor. [30] [31]
In 2022, he produced Aurora's Sunrise about Armenian Genocide survivor Aurora Mardiganian. In 2024, he was named a co-founder of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity alongside Noubar Afeyan. The prize is named after Mardiganian and is a global humanitarian award recognizing individuals for humanitarian work. [32]
Robert George Kardashian was an American attorney and businessman. He gained recognition as O. J. Simpson's friend and defense attorney during Simpson's 1995 murder trial. He had four children with his first wife, Kris Kardashian: Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob, who appear on their family reality television series, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and its spinoffs.
Kerkor "Kirk" Kerkorian was an Armenian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was the president and CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California. Kerkorian was one of the important figures in the shaping of Las Vegas and, with architect Martin Stern Jr., is described as the "father of the mega-resort". He built the world's largest hotel in Las Vegas three times: the International Hotel, the original MGM Grand Hotel (1973) and the current MGM Grand (1993). He purchased the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio in 1969.
Abraham Henry Foxman is an American lawyer and activist. He served as the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) from 1987 to 2015, and is currently the League's national director emeritus. From 2016 to 2021 he served as vice chair of the board of trustees at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City in order to lead its efforts on antisemitism.
Armenian Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have total or partial Armenian ancestry. They form the second largest community of the Armenian diaspora after Armenians in Russia. The first major wave of Armenian immigration to the United States took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Thousands of Armenians settled in the United States following the Hamidian massacres of the mid-1890s, the Adana massacre of 1909, and the Armenian genocide of 1915–1918 in the Ottoman Empire. Since the 1950s many Armenians from the Middle East migrated to the United States as a result of political instability in the region. It accelerated in the late 1980s and has continued after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 due to socio-economic and political reasons. The Los Angeles area has the largest Armenian population in the United States.
Morris Mike Medavoy is an American film producer and business executive. He is the co-founder of Orion Pictures, the former chairman of TriStar Pictures, the former head of production for United Artists, and the current chairman and CEO of Phoenix Pictures.
Carla Garapedian is a filmmaker, director, writer and broadcaster. She directed Children of the Secret State about North Korea and was an anchor for BBC World News. After leaving BBC World, she directed Dying for the President about Chechnya, Lifting the Veil, about women in Afghanistan, Iran Undercover and My Friend the Mercenary about the coup in Equatorial Guinea. Her feature, Screamers, was theatrically released in the U.S. in December 2006 and early 2007, and was on Newsweek's pick of non-fiction films for 2006/7. The Independent called it "powerful" and Larry King for CNN described it as "a brilliant film. Everyone should see it." The New York Times deemed it "invigorating and articulate," while the Los Angeles Times called it "eye-opening." "Carla Garapedian is a screamer, too," said the Washington Post.
Richard Gable Hovannisian was an American historian and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is known mainly for his four-volume history of the First Republic of Armenia.
The Jules Stein Eye Institute, founded by MCA founder Jules Stein, functions as the department of ophthalmology for the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.
Armenia Fund was established in 1994 in Los Angeles, California. Armenia Fund, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-governmental, non-political corporation, headquartered in Yerevan. Serving as the United States' Western Region affiliate of the "Hayastan" All-Armenian Fund along with its nineteen subsidiaries around the world, Armenia Fund, Inc. has issued over $120 million of electricity development guarantee and humanitarian revenue for Armenia. Lately, the government of Armenia has been contributing to the fund since the fund has been receiving less support and not being able to meet its initial goals.
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United States. It is currently ranked by U.S. News & World Report, as the best in California and the West Coast. The hospital provides tertiary care to Los Angeles and the surrounding communities.
Aghet – Ein Völkermord is a 2010 German documentary film on the Armenian genocide by the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It is based on eyewitness reports by European and American personnel stationed in the Near East at the time, Armenian survivors and other contemporary witnesses which are recited by modern German actors. The visual material partly consists of secretly shot photographs of the death marches, Turkish atrocities and suffering of the Armenian deportees.
The Los Angeles metropolitan area has a significant Armenian American population. As of 1990, this single area holds the largest Armenian American community in the United States as well as the largest population of Armenians in the world outside Armenia.
1915 is a 2015 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Garin Hovannisian and Alec Mouhibian. The film stars Simon Abkarian, Angela Sarafyan, Nikolai Kinski, Debra Christofferson, Jim Piddock, and Samuel Page. It follows a mysterious director staging a play to bring the ghosts of a forgotten tragedy back to life on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
The Promise is a 2016 American epic historical war drama film directed by Terry George, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Robin Swicord. Set in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, the film stars Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale. The plot is about a love triangle that develops between Mikael (Isaac), an Armenian medical student, Chris (Bale), an American journalist, and Ana, an Armenian-born woman raised in France, immediately before and during the Armenian genocide.
The US $1,000,000 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity is a global humanitarian award recognizing individuals for humanitarian work. It is awarded on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian genocide.
The Ottoman Lieutenant is a Turkish-American romantic war drama film directed by Joseph Ruben and written by Jeff Stockwell. The film stars Michiel Huisman, Hera Hilmar, Josh Hartnett and Ben Kingsley. The film was released widely on March 10, 2017.
Apo Avedissian is an Iraqi-American artist of Armenian descent, often working in film-making, painting, photography, and writing.
UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital (MCH) at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's hospital located in Los Angeles, California. The hospital has 156 pediatric beds, is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, and is a member of UCLA Health. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to pediatric patients aged 0–21 throughout California. Mattel Children's also sometimes treats adults that require pediatric care. UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital features an ACS verified pediatric level 1 trauma center. The UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital is located on the third and fifth floors of the newly constructed Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
