Sevak Ohanian is an Armenian-American film producer and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-writer and producer of the films Searching and Run, as well as the co-producer on the film Fruitvale Station.
Early life
Ohanian was born in Germany, and moved to the U.S. when he was 4 months old. At 20 years old, he wrote, directed and produced a microbudget film based on his own life titled My Big Fat Armenian Family. The movie found international success in the Armenian community worldwide. Ohanian used the proceeds from the films to help pay for tuition when he attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and received an MFA in film and television production.
Career
2013–2017: early career
Since graduating from USC in 2012, Ohanian has been a producer on over a dozen feature films. Ohanian co-produced the film Fruitvale Station, written and directed by fellow USC graduate Ryan Coogler. Fruitvale Station went on to win the top audience and grand jury awards in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and also went on to premiere at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the Prize of the Future. In 2014, Ohanian produced a two-minute Google Glass spot called Seeds, directed by Aneesh Chaganty. The short became an internet sensation after garnering more than 1 million YouTube views in 24 hours. Ohanian produced Andrew Bujalksi's film Results, which premiered at Sundance in 2015 and was acquired by Magnolia Pictures. He also produced Clea DuVall's The Intervention, premiered at Sundance 2016 and was acquired by Paramount. Ohanian taught producing as an adjunct professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts from 2014–2018.
2018–present: ''Searching'' and beyond
Ohanian co-wrote the script and produced the film Searching with his often collaborators co-writer and director Aneesh Chaganty, and fellow producer Natalie Qasabian. Searching premiered at Sundance 2018 and was theatrically released in August by Sony Screen Gems making over $75M worldwide. The film starred John Cho and Debra Messing, and won the Sundance NEXT Audience Award as well as the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Award. Ohanian was the recipient of the Sundance Institute / Amazon Studios Narrative Producers Award. Ohanian co-wrote and produced the film Run, which sold to Lionsgate after a bidding war. Run, which stars Sarah Paulson, was set to release in 2020 but has since been delayed due to the worldwide coronavirus outbreak. In 2018, Ohanian partnered with Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Evans to form a production company. They have so far produced , starring LeBron James and the Looney Tunes, and Untitled Fred Hampton Project, starring Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield. They are in development on a number of other projects, including a film adaptation of the critically acclaimed Bitter Root comics.
