Arya Senboutaraj is an independent director working and living in Los Angeles, CA. At the ripe old age of two years Arya immigrated to the United States from Laos, fleeing from the communist regime taking over the country. Of all the places to land in the United States, Arya's family ended up in Wisconsin. This is where the artist within him was forged, in the quiet suburb of Waukesha. Arya has always looked for answers, more importantly the experiences that would inform these solutions.

 

By combining his knowledge of film direction, graphic design, photography, illustration, and animation, Arya is a truly multi-dimensional director. Arya is able to carry out his vision from conceptualization, pre-visualization, on set, and all the way through post production. This allows Arya to be truly involved with all aspects of the creative process with a complete understanding of it all. This is the engine that drives the machinery of his mind's eye.

 

Arya attended the Minneapolis College of Art Design. Originally intending to become a photographer, but after two years of a photography major decided to concentrate on a multimedia approach with an emphasis on graphic design. Thereby combining two of his passions, photography and collage. It was also during this time that Arya studied video, animation, and more importantly digital video (still a nascent technology at this time). In addition Arya also worked as a freelance designer at the Walker Art Center (where upon graduation was offered the prestigious Walker Art Center design internship), an internationally renowned museum of contemporary art. Though after graduation Arya moved to Los Angeles pursuing a career in the nascent field known at the time as motion graphics, an amalgam of graphic design and animation. Arya was one of the original founders of the influential motion graphics company Logan.

 

After several years at Logan Arya decided to form the directing partnership known as Rainbows&Vampires. The music video, "In This City" by the band Enon, was the first of their directing endeavors. With a wild imagination and seamless transitions, the video was a magical journey through a neo-Tokyo type city. It has been featured in magazines such as RES and Creativity. It opened the doors to collaborations with the Black Eyed Peas, Le Tigre, DeepDish, David Gray, Enon, The Black Heart Procession, Fefe Dobson, The Strokes, TeenNick of the Nickelodeon network, and Yoko Ono. Besides playing on MTV, their work has been featured in international film festivals such as the aforementioned RES fest, Milan Film Festival, LA Film Festival, and many others.

 

Arya is now a solo director. He has shot commercials globally and collaborated with such influential directors such as Roman Coppola, Sophie Mueller, and Mike Mills.