Ara Najarian was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended The Hawken School where he excelled in academics and athletics. He was student body president for two years,captain of the football team, member of the swim team and the quarter miler on the track team. He was recruited by many schools for their football team and chose to attend Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. In 1980, Ara’s family decided to move to Glendale and he transferred to Occidental College for his Junior and Senior years. Ara continued playing football and was captain of the Occidental football team. He majored in Economics and graduated in 1982. Ara then entered USC Law School to continue his education. He received his JD degree in 1985.

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Ara worked in the Washington DC office of then Glendale Congressman Carlos Moorehead. He also worked for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office in the Glendale branch office and then in the narcotics division under current DA Steve Cooley. Ara decided to enter private practice and opened his office in Glendale in 1988 specializing in consumer law. Ara volunteered to serve the courts as a Judge Pro Tem for many years in Glendale and Van Nuys. He was appointed to the Glendale Transportation and Parking Commission in 1997. He served on that commission for 7 years and was selected chairman for two years.

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In 2003, Ara ran for and was elected to the Glendale Community College Board of Trustees. After serving for two years on the board Ara saw the opportunity to serve the community in an even greater capacity and ran for City Council in 2005. Ara ran an aggressive campaign and received the highest vote among 18 candidates including 3 sitting incumbents. Ara was elected again to the Glendale City Council in 2009 where he again received the highest number of votes.

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After joining the council, Ara saw the need for Glendale to take a higher profile role in regional bodies. With his years of transportation background Ara pursued the highly coveted seat on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. With assistance from several highly respected community members, Ara won the election to the MTA Board in 2006. Ara worked very well on the MTA board and impressed his colleagues, with his keen grasp of regional transportation issues and was selected to serve as Chairman of the MTA for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Ara served on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Regional Railroad Association (Metrolink) from 2006-2012. He was selected by his peers to serve as the Chairman of the San Fernando Valley Council of Governments for the second year in a row. Ara was selected to be Mayor for the city of Glendale for the 2007-2008 year, and again from 2010-2011.  Current City Council member of Glendale, California (April, 2005 - Current) 

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Ara is a graduate from Occidental College with a degree in Economics, then earning his Law degree from U.S.C.