Actor Garen Boyajian Can Do It All

By Kin Labrin

A Canadian actor of Armenian descent, commonly recognized for his portrayal of young Arshile Gorky in Atom Egoyan’s Ararat, Garen Boyajian is rapidly making a name for himself in the Hollywood film industry. Success has not always come quickly. But with two movies slated for release, undergirded by a visionary long-term plan, life is in motion according to “my goals and dreams.”However put, it appears that Garen Boyajian can truly do it all.
“Armenians love identifying me as the boy in Ararat. But I was 14 and that was eight years ago. I hope that doesn’t mean I’ve already peaked,” he jokes. It may come as a surprise to some that Garen has a diverse resume with roles spanning many genres and media. He had a recurring role on the popular television sitcom “Radio Free Roscoe”; he is a recipient of the Best Actor Award at the 2008 Monaco International Film Festival. Garen also speaks fondly of his experience in theatre mentioning his starring role in A Crooked Man, written by Richard Kalinoski (Beast on the Moon).
Three Veils is a film about the individual journeys of three women who confront their cultural issues. Garen’s character is wedged between two of those women as the brother to one and the love interest to another. “Above all, I think it’s a brave film. The writer-director of the project, Rolla Selback, didn’t pull any punches while addressing controversial topics and taboos that touch my generation,” he says.
The movie will go to film festivals before being released in theatres.
The second movie Garen filmed this year is a dramatic love story titled The Son of An Afghan Farmer. “It’s a beautiful piece about a student who earns a scholarship from Afghanistan to Stanford University then fights feelings of responsibility to return when his family’s only source of survival, their poppy field, is threatened,” he explains.
Garen spent weeks filming on farmlands located on the outskirts of Santa Barbara, California.
Where other actors fill their time between projects with extended periods of leisure, Garen “unintentionally became a producer” to facilitate his acting career.
“Developing projects has taught me a lot about the industry and how it really works,” he says. He wouldn’t disclose the details of one current project. But when pressed, he revealed that he has “a political thriller being read right now by some well-known directors, and a film adaptation of a book written by one of the most celebrated American writers of the 20th and 21st century.”