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Hiro Murai Biography
Hiro Murai is a Japanese-American filmmaker, Director and Visual artist based in Los Angeles. He has been involved in the directing of several music videos for prolific artists such as The Fray, Death Cab for Cutie, Childish Gambino, Earl Sweatshirt, Chet Faker, Flying Lotus, David Guetta, St. Vincent, The Shins among others. He is known to be a close allies with Donald Glover and was involved in directing the surreal and thought provoking short film titled Clapping for the Wrong Reasons, which is companion piece for Childish Gambino’s second studio album, Because the Internet in 2013. consecutively, he created a multi-panel video set for Frank Ocean’s performance at the 2013 Grammys. He is also accredited in the directing of several episodes Donald’s comedy-drama titled Atlanta.
Courtesy of Atlanta; he has received three nominations for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. In February 10, 2019,Childish Gambino’s This Is America for which he had directed, won Best Music Video.
Hiro Murai Age| Birthday
Hiro was born in 1983 in Tokyo, Japan and is 36 years old in 2019.
Hiro Murai Father
Murai was born to Japanese popular music composer Kunihiko Murai . His father is a Tokyo -born composer , music producer and a founder of the Record label Alpha . His father is known for composing and producing hits by The Tempters , The Mops , The Tigers , Peter , Red Birds , Mari Henmi , Tois et Mois , Vicky among others
Hiro Murai Education
The film director moved to Los Angeles when he was nine years old and later graduated with a degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Hiro Murai Young| Early Career
After graduation, Murai ventured into freelancing. He would collaborate with different directors as their director of photography which got him involved in numerous music videos with his first role as co-director for Make Believe’s 2005 song titled ‘Small Apartment Party Epiphany’. He was also involved with film maker Ace Norton helping out with VFX and storyboarding. He would later decide to go solo by trying his hand in the directing of low budget films.
Hiro Murai Photo
Hiro Murai Director
Over the years, Hiro has been involved in the directing of videos for prolific artists such as Make Believe, Death Cab For Cutie, Teddy Bears, Aqueduct, The Submarines, The Fray,B.O.B, Usher, Lupe Fiasco, Gym Class Heroes, The Shins, David Guetta, St. Vincent, Earl Sweatshirt, St. Vincent, Childish Gambino, Chet Faker, Massive Attack, Baauer, A tribe Called Quest as well as Micheal Kiwanuka among other artists.
He has also been involved in the directing of Donald Glover‘s comedy-drama series titled Atlanta which led to three nominations for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series.
He also partnered with Nike in 2013 to direct their campaign which starred Rapper Chance the Rapper.
Hiro has also been involved in the direction of Series; Legion,Sea Oak and the continuing series Barry.
Hiro Murai Guava Island
He is also working with Childish Gambino and Singer and entrepreneur Rihanna for a new feature film titled Guava Island that is set to be released in 2019. The film is set to feature Donald Glover, Rihanna, Letitia Wright and Nonso Anozie. The trailer for the full-length movie premiered on November 24 2018 at the PHAROS festival in New Zealand.
Hiro Murai Awards & Achievements
- (2009) MVPA Award for Best Video under $25K. The Fray “Heartless”
- (2012) Best Music Video Lists: Pitchfork / BuzzFeed / Consequence of Sound / Video Static / Co.Create / NPR Music – for St. Vincent “Cheerleader” and Earl Sweatshirt “Chum”
- (2013) MVPA Best Electronic Video: David Guetta – “She Wolf”
- (2014) UKMVA Director of the Year / Best Rock / Indie Video International QOTSA for Smooth Sailing.
- (2014) Best Music Videos Lists: The Verge, Pitchfork, IMVDB, Stereogum
- (2018) MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction: Childish Gambino – “This Is America”
- (2019) Grammy Award for Best Music Video: Childish Gambino – “This Is America”
Hiro Murai Music Video Director
| Hiro Murai Music video Direction | ||||||
| Year | Title | Artist | Director | Other | Notes | Ref. |
| 2005 | “Small Apartment Party Epiphany” | Make Believe | Yes | Co-directed with Brandon Driscoll-Luttringer and Steve Drypolcher | ||
| 2006 | “Crooked Teeth” | Death Cab for Cutie | Yes | Director of photography | ||
| “Someday You Will Be Loved” | Death Cab for Cutie | Yes | Director of photography | |||
| “Cobrastyle” | Teddybears | Yes | Director of photography | |||
| 2007 | “Living a Lie” | Aqueduct | Yes | Director of photography | ||
| 2009 | “Submarine Symphonika” | The Submarines | Yes | Director of photography | ||
| “Signs” | Bloc Party | Yes | ||||
| “Me-Time” | Busdriver | Yes | ||||
| “Heartless” | The Fray | Yes | ||||
| “Unbalanced Pieces” | Soulsavers | Yes | ||||
| “Staying In Love” | Raphael Saadiq | Yes | ||||
| 2010 | “Airplanes” | B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams | Yes | |||
| “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” | Usher featuring Pitbull | Yes | ||||
| “The Show Goes On” | Lupe Fiasco | Yes | ||||
| 2011 | “Stereo Hearts” | Gym Class Heroesfeaturing Adam Levine | Yes | |||
| 2012 | “Shady Love” | Scissor Sisters vs. Krystal Pepsy | Yes | |||
| “Mind Control” | Friends | Yes | ||||
| “It’s Only Life” | The Shins | Yes | ||||
| “She Wolf (Falling to Pieces)” | David Guetta featuring Sia | Yes | ||||
| “Chum” | Earl Sweatshirt | Yes | ||||
| “Cheerleader” | St. Vincent | Yes | ||||
| 2013 | “Hive” | Earl Sweatshirt | Yes | |||
| “High Road” | Cults | Yes | ||||
| “3005” | Childish Gambino | Yes | ||||
| 2014 | “Smooth Sailing” | Queens of the Stone Age | Yes | |||
| “Sweatpants” | Childish Gambino | Yes | ||||
| “Do You” | Spoon | Yes | ||||
| “Gold” | Chet Faker | Yes | ||||
| “#CAKE” | Shabazz Palaces | Yes | ||||
| “Never Catch Me” | Flying Lotus | Yes | ||||
| “Telegraph Ave” | Childish Gambino | Yes | ||||
| 2015 | “Sober” | Childish Gambino | Yes | |||
| “Grief” | Earl Sweatshirt | Yes | ||||
| 2016 | “Take It There” | Massive Attack | Yes | |||
| “Day Ones” | Baauer | Yes | ||||
| “Black Man in a White World” | Michael Kiwanuka | Yes | ||||
| 2017 | “Dis Generation” | A Tribe Called Quest | Yes | [12] | ||
| 2018 | “This Is America” | Childish Gambino | Yes | [13] | ||
Hiro Murai Television Direction
| Hiro Murai Television Direction | ||||||
| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Executive producer | Notes | Ref. |
| 2016–present | Atlanta | Yes | Yes | Yes | Directed 14 episodes, produced 10 episodes, executive produced 2 episodes | |
| 2017 | Legion | Yes | Episode: “Chapter 6” | |||
| 2017 | Sea Oak | Yes | Yes | Amazon Video pilot | ||
| 2018-present | Barry | Yes | 4 episodes | |||
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